Legend of Explosive Youth!
by dialNforNinja
Summary: The slightly insane adventures of a Naruto who came to the attention of Lee, then Gai, then Gai's daughter, and through the power of youthful spirit and hard work graduated the Academy on his second attempt. Plus the odd side story on the canon Rookie 9.
1. Team Explosive Youth, HASSHIN!

20050722 - started discussion on the DWMB 20050724 - created story file  
>20080611 - fixed a big continuity error that I thought had been handled long ago.<p>

Such little things can make the largest changes - one person being assigned a duty instead of another, equally qualified collegue, a trip taking eighteen days instead of nineteen, reflexes just a hair quicker than they might otherwise be...

People who might never have met can fall in love.

People who might never have existed can be born.

Stories that might never have been imagined can be told.

So it was when the Village Hidden by Mist sent a courier to the Village Hidden by Leaves, and so she arrived just as a Hidden Stone assault force attacked, and so she was saved by a young Leaf Jounin, and so - after a time - they had a healthy, energetic baby girl. *Very* energetic. She took strongly after her father, with the perhaps fortunate exception of her face.

Of course, even when the major changes seem to have exhausted themselves, the smaller ones keep adding up, a minor difference of timing here, a small change in attitude there... And suddenly, there's a new round of huge differences from the way things would otherwise have been.

Pull up a chair, and get ready to work on your screentan. It's time to tell a story.

Bewilderbeast Studios Presents

TEAM EXPLOSIVE YOUTH! HASSHIN!  
>A work of Naruto fan fiction by<p>

ClassicDrogn aka dialNforNinja

with conceptual assistance (and lots of prodding) from

Nathan Baxter Greiver ordnance11 Drakensis

Dedicated to the above, ah, *enthusiasts*, who took a random plotbunny and fed it until it demanded release. Remember, this is YOUR fault I'm doing this, guys.

Sarutobi Chieshamaru, Third Hokage of the Leaf, smiled warmly even as he adjusted his aging frame on the seat behind the desk where he was giving out the day's mission assignments. It had been a very good week, he reflected:

Two days ago one of his personal projects, a child who'd become like a second grandson to him, had graduated from the ninja academy. Even though it had taken an extra year for the boy to pass, he'd entered two years younger than the average, and was still ahead of his age group.

Yesterday, after no more than the usual false starts, the team Sandaime had carefully chosen to include the friend who'd been such a good influence to the boy and a jounin sensei who wouldn't hold the past against him had passed that sensei's team exam.

Today... Today, he would get to assign the first mission of a fine young ninja who might someday use this seat himself. Sarutobi handed over the last of the ANBU assignment folders for the day, and signaled that the general mission assignments could begin. If he knew his subordinates as well as he thought he did...

Ah, there they were, the first as he'd expected. He gave a quick handsign to his assistants that all was well as a smoke bomb went off at the front of the room, the sudden burst of air making his red trimmed robes flutter gently. With an impassioned cry, a green-clad shape hurtled out of the smoke to land dramatically posed, one arm extended in a thumbs-up.

"The Leaf's Handsome Green Beast, Maito Gai!" the intruder shouted, light from the morning sun outside the window gleaming from a wide, toothy grin.

A second form followed after him, like a 2/3 scale clone save for lacking a jounin's vest or mustache, and differently shaped eyes, right down to the skin tight green jumpsuit and gleaming black bowl cut. He took a mirroring pose a few feet away before announcing in a youthful voice, "The Leaf's Proud Green Beast, Rock Lee!"

Another hurtling form, flashing green and orange as it somersaulted to a stop, blonde hair and foxy grin above the boy's trademark orange jacket, worn over yet another of the green spandex jumpsuits. "The Leaf's Blazing Orange Wildfire, Uzumaki Naruto!" he shouted enthusiastically, both arms up to wave victory signs. Somehow, the jacket managed to clash with the slightly different shade of orange on the leggings all three wore, the Hokage noted to himself. If nothing else, hiding that outfit under the robes of office would probably be counted a heroic service to the village.

Before his thoughts could get too off track - an old man's vice, and one he found himself indulging in more often as time went on - the third and final genin team mate made her entrance, cartwheeling skillfully to a perfect stop, one arm draped around Naruto's shoulders, the opposite leg around his knee, and her other arm holding out another victory sign, proclaiming herself "The Leaf's Beautiful Fuschia Tsunami, Maito Rikou!"

The short red skirt around her waist rustled to a stop, a hot pink body glove molding her somewhat limited assets to best effect against Naruto's shoulder as the tall, lithe girl snuggled closer. Thankfully, she'd been spared the bowl cut and fuzzy brows of her father and his look-alike team mate; long, dark hair instead pinned up in a bun on the back of her head. In obviously practiced unison, all four concluded, "Team Explosive Youth is ready for action!"

Sarutobi stifled a chuckle as the eleven-year old boy looked uncertainly at the kunoichi for a moment before shrugging it - and her - off. "Hey, hey, old man! How about our dramatic entrance! Wasn't that cool?" Naruto crowed.

The chuckle was still fighting to get out, damn it. And Gai's passionate admonishments about not letting the exuberance of the springtime of youth overwhelm one's sense of respect wasn't helping him one bit.

Sometime later, the four of them were picking up trash in one of the village's many small park areas. It had pleasantly soft grass and a light screen of trees around the central clearing to provide shade and a windbreak - and a bit of cover if the area was needed for its secondary purpose as a rallying point for defenders. At the moment, it also rang with the loudly complaining voice of a certain orange-clad genin.

"JEEEEZE," Naruto whined. "Why do we have to do such a boring, low class mission! A super excellent ninja like me should be escorting a daimyo, or rescuing a run-away princess, or- or catching a hated criminal, or -"

His indignant tirade was cut off as Gai catapulted out of his handstand, the crushed juice can he'd been carrying to the trash bin clutched between his ankles flying up in the air. Seconds later, it landed to balance perfectly on the tip of the finger he'd raised toward the heavens while declaiming, "Ah, my impetuous student! It is as our most skilled and wise Hokage explained, these simple tasks serve the village in THREE WAYS! Firstly, by performing in small ways for a modest fee, it provides a steady flow of money! Secondly, by giving such missions to new graduates like yourselves, it frees more experienced ninja for more dangerous endeavors! Finally, it simultaneously allows the opportunity to FAN THE FIRE of your youthful energy, to hone teamwork and skills to someday join those more experienced ranks yourselves!"

The juice can became airborne again as the jounin waved particularly emphatically, sailing smoothly into the bin without touching the rim.

His own armload of trash just deposited, Lee clutched his hands in front of his chest, eyes wide in admiration. "Oh Gai-sensei, you're so knowledgeable!" he gasped.

"Indeed," the super-fuzzy browed jounin aknowledged, "BUT! There is one MORE way in which such simple missions are useful!" Lowering his voice (to merely "loud") Gai beckoned his new-minted team into a huddle. Placing a hand each on the shoulders of Lee and Rikou, and winking conspiratorially at Naruto across the circle, he asked, "Do all of you remember my most secret and powerful ninja technique?"

"Un, un!" Rikou replied, while the boys were still opening their mouths. "The secret Maito 'Self-Rules' training, right?"

"CORRECT, MY BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER!" the emotive jounin bellowed, pulling her into a fierce hug. "You shine so BRILLIANTLY in your springtime of youth!" Recovering himself, with effort, he set the girl back on her feet and returned to the huddle. "Yes, the fearsome 'Self-Rules' training! All ninja know that to gain strength requires work, but with the 'Self-Rules' training you go BEYOND the minimum to work EXTRA hard and become EXTRA STRONG! By imposing your own obstacle, you overcome ALL LIMITS with the EXPLOSIVE POWER OF YOUTH!"

Fires blazed in the tall jounin's eyes and sunlight shone from alabaster teeth as he exhorted, "I shall help you begin. Together we have cleaned this clearing, but now, each of you shall pick up one side of the tree line walking ONLY ON YOUR HANDS!" He struck anther pose, a fist clenched in in the middle of the circle.

"YEAH!" Lee shouted. "And if I can't do that, I'll pick up the ENTIRE next park without using my hands at all!" he promised, knocking his own fist againts his sensei's.

"And, and, if *I* can't do that, I'll toss every piece of trash in the next park in the air and burn it right away with 'Kaen!'" Naruto exclaimed, thumping his fist into the pile.

"Well if *I* can't do that, I'll clean an entire park by catching each piece of trash with my ribbon daggers!" Rikou enthused, completing the circle. "It's a promise!"

Overcome with pride, Gai swept his team into a group embrace. "OH, MY STUDENTS!" he cried. "IT MAKES ME SO PROUD TO SEE THE FIREY DETERMINATION OF YOUR BRILLIANT YOUTHFUL SPIRITS! Surely you will become the GREATEST of ninja!"

"OH, GAI-SENSEI!" Lee hollered.

"YOU'RE SO INSPIRATIONAL, TOUSAN!" Rikou agreed.

Naruto, while he'd gotten over being alarmed at the jumpsuit-wearing jounin's demonstrative nature, still had years of ingrained reflex that touching equalled having been grabbed or slapped, and went stiff... but only for an instant. After all, this was his freind Lee who'd trained with him this past year until they both could graduate, and Gai-sensei who'd helped them both with taijutsu even before he was their official sensei and taught Naruto the Katon technique that he'd been practising with, and Gai's daughter Rikou who seemed to be all over him lately anyway and had also trained with them regularly after following her father to their practise area one afternoon. The blond boy relaxed into the hug as if into a perfectly warmed bath, smiling from one whisker-marked cheek to the other, his voice unchacteristically soft as he stated, "Yeah, I'll be the greatest Hokage ever, and you guys'll be my number one ninja for sure."

Restraining his overflowing heart, Gai released the genin and stepped back. "YOSH!" he shouted, pumping a fist. "TEAM EXPLOSIVE YOUTH, HASSHIN! I shall clear the south border!"

So saying, he did a series of backflips, ending once again in a handstand, feet spearing down to grip a discarded take-out box between them. The rest of his team - listed in the Hokage's records as Team Six from this year, though Gai had never called them that even in his own thoughts - followed suit, if less acrobatically, and with considerably more difficulty in keeping their balance and their smelly cargo at the same time. Rikou had to adjust the coil of thin, black silk rope she kept on one shoulder to keep it from falling off, tucking the free end under her sash-style Konoha badge.

* * *

><p>(Would you like to know more?)<p>

* * *

><p>The Naruto setting and all characters therein are the property of Kishimoto-sensei and Shonen Jump. Maito Rikou and the circumstances leading to her presence are pretty much a collaborative effort between myself and my collaborators, but may be freely used as long as we're aknowledged for her.<p>

Chieshamaru - So far as I know, Sarutobi-sama has not been given a personal name in either the manga or anime. I added the common Naruto-world suffix -maru to 'chiesha,' or 'wise man.'

Katon: kaen no jutsu - "fire release: hot flame skill" - while Naruto is primarily a Wind type, wind users are rare in Fire Country, and without exposure to more than his reputation Asuma is unwilling to help give the gaki more trouble-making ability. Hence, Gai started him off on fire-type ninjutsu, because a) he's got enough chakra to make up for it not being his strongest type anyway, b) air combines to make fire stronger, and c) the extra challenge is just another training obstacle to overcome with hard work and guts! A bit less powerful than the Uchiha signature 'Gyoukaku' (great fire ball) due to a smaller overall volume, but the range is better. The same fire technique as Jiraya's half of 'Gama Yuendan' (toad oil flame bullet) combo attack in canon

Jutsu - "skill" or "technique"

Sash-style badge - it would be a forehead protector, but it's on a longer strip of red fabric. Gai and Lee use them in canon, so does Rikou here, but Naruto still uses a dark blue hitae-ate badge and ACTUALLY wears it on his forehead. I would have kept his goggles and given him a sash-type badge as well, but his jacket would cover it most of the time. He uses a front-tied plain red sash and hangs the usual belt pouches off of that.

END OF LINE


	2. TXY: Search for Gero Sennin 1 of 3

20060720 - finished Jiraya meeting, started training stuff  
>20061215 - training sequence begun, just endgame remains<br>20071214 - training continues, watched movie for armor details  
>20071217 - finished training, but three more scenes appeared<br>20071225 - lots of notes and fragments for last scenes  
>20071226 - one big fight down, just Bunta and the finale to go<br>20080430 - various edits, and started working on kyuubi/Bunta  
>20080502 - like REO Speedwagon sang, "got to keep a-pushin' on."<br>20080506 - FINALLY! Draft complete!  
>20080507 - the Rapid Reader Response System pointed out several things in need of a fix.<br>20111011 - chopped in thirds for FFn

It had been a month now since they'd graduated, and Naruto almost wondered if it had been worth the trouble - well, not really, but the three genin had trained together nearly as much when they were still academy students, and at least then when Gai-sensei had a mission and couldn't join them they didn't have to join *him* painting houses or mowing lawns or catching poor Tora, the Fire daimyo's wife's cat *again* to be returned to the Hell of Smothering Tight Hugs.

Well, he thought there was probably a hell like that, anyway. He'd been chased away by some older kids the one time he'd ever tried to go to one of the temples during a festival, but he knew there were lots of weird hells, like the Hell of Whirling Blades and the Hell of Inverted Sinners and the Hell of Howling Winds - various adults had told him to go to most of them at one time or another, and he'd had too much experience with smothering hugs since he'd met his super-fuzzy-face sensei. At least those weren't caused by malice, just excess of excitement.

These thoughts had carried him through the somewhat dull routine of setting up some lightweight posts for the morning's training with Lee and Rikou while they waited for Gai to get their assignment for the afternoon. They'd gotten the process refined to a smooth system by now - Naruto would pick out a straight, arm-thick branch about the right length, Rikou would trim off all the twigs and leaves with a pair of blades attached to the ends of her silk rope, then Lee would break it off of the parent tree with a solid kick and Naruto would carry it back to the clearing, where Rikou would blast a narrow hole in the ground with 'Misukurinuku,' a basic water-type jutsu and, finally, Lee would slam it down into place before they went to get another.

Once they'd gotten a dozen or so of them set in a loose circle, all three would get a turn at jumping from one to the next all the way around before having a three-way spar where anyone who got knocked off the posts had to wait for a count of twenty before jumping back in. That much had been in the instructions Gai had given when they started doing the exercise each day, but they'd quickly added Self Rules as well - today, for example, Lee declared, "For this match, I shall stand only on my right leg, and if I'm knocked down I'll do left-leg squat-thrusts until the time limit passes!"

"Okay!" the blond enthused, his usual cheerful nature reasserting itself. "Well today I'll use only kicks, and if anyone can knock me down I'll do handstand push-ups until I get to come back!"

Rikou tightened the knots where she'd replaced the daggers on her cord with similarly shaped, blunt weights for training. "YEAH!" she shouted, charged up with their collective enthusiasm. "I'm going to hold the Kirigakure no jutsu for the whole fight, and if I fall it's BACKFLIPS!"

The two boys gasped, knowing how much she hated doing flips. They tended to loosen the bun she wore her hair in, even with four large pins to hold it. "Such dedication," Lee murmured, his eyes sparkling with re-doubled youthful spirit, while Naruto treated her to his best Nice Guy pose.

Oddly, Rikou always seemed to get a bit flushed when he did that, and sometimes her breath would catch, but when he'd asked her if he was doing it wrong she'd said no, it was just perfect and to please do it more. So he did, chalking it up to girl-weirdness. She shifted her hips and gave him a sultry grin before hopping up to the nearest pole and forming the hand seals to use Kirigakure no Jutsu, the basis of her mother's hybrid ninjutsu/genjutsu technique, 'Gorimuchuu.'

Rikou had much better chakra control than Naruto, but her biggest challenge as a ninja was maintaining that control when she was struck, so maintaining 'Kirigakure' at a constant level where it would feel and taste as damp as the genjutsu element of 'Gorimuchuu' would make enemies experience while still keeping it it thin enough that she and her team mates could see and distinguish each other by their bright outfits was a perfect Self Rule to practice. Doing that while also using chakra to stick her feet to the post with the tree-climbing technique Gai-sensei had taught them just added to the challenge!

With twin cries of excitement the boys joined her at the tops of the poles, and the battle began in earnest as the first edge of the sun peered over the horizon to light up the mist. It was really quite beautiful, the brightly-dressed girl thought as her weighted cord twirled and lashed out like a demented serpent, only barely avoided as Lee hopped and flipped over Naruto to another pole.

Legend of Explosive Youth Part Two

Team Six: Urgent Mission! Search for Gero-Sennin!

As usual, Maito Gai was the first person through the door after the ANBU assignments had been distributed, and Sarutobi had already set aside a pair of scrolls in anticipation. One was a normal mission scroll, the other held closed by his personal seal. Sandaime smiled tolerantly as the jounin landed in his customary Nice Guy pose, greeting, "Good morning. A quadruple flip today? You must be getting used to the new weights."

"YOSH!" Konoha's most excitable ninja cheered, eyes aflame with youthful passion. "I shall have to create a new pair, with the gravity seal set for six hundred and FIFTY pounds! No, six hundred and SEVENTY!" he shouted, pumping a fist. "I will do it this very afternoon, as soon as my excellent students have completed today's mission with youth and spirit!"

The Hokage hummed, and drew on his pipe. He savored the rich northern-coast blend for a moment, then puffed a double smoke ring and spoke. "Your team has shaped up well, then. That's good, Gai-kun. Do you think they are ready for a mission outside the village?" The mission reports on Team Six's progress had been uniformly positive, even when translated from Gai-ese, but he always preferred to leave such decisions to the sensei involved when he could. It was partly a mark of trust in his subordinates' judgment and partly the fact that even though he tried to get to know all of the ninja under his care, they were the ones working together day in and day out.

"Oooooooh!" The ebon-haired sensei crowed, manly tears of pride cascading down his cheeks. "HOKAGE-SAMA! I am so moved by your faith in the SHINING ENERGY of Team Explosive Youth! My precious students will accomplish any assignment with the POWER of their BRILLIANT SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH!"

Again, not an answer that came as a surprise. Sarutobi adjusted his squared-off hat and slid the scrolls across the desk, the C-Rank wrapper of the mission scroll plainly obvious. "As you can see, the mission has been rated higher than D-Rank, but mainly because it is likely to take two to three weeks rather than due to any exceptional danger. I immediately thought of your team because speed is of high importance. You should hold off on the new weights until afterward, and have your students leave theirs behind until the message scroll is delivered. I'll add an extra mission allowance for them to purchase new equipment at the destination."

Gai brushed his eyes dry, and bowed over the scrolls clutched tight to his chest. "You're so GENEROUS, Hokage-sama!" he cried, before vanishing in a puff of chakra smoke.

Sarutobi grinned again at the man's antics, then signaled for the next waiting shinobi to be sent in.

When Gai poofed into existence at the training ground, he found his charges still hard at work in the sun-touched mist, Lee hopping and flipping from one post to the next as he avoided Rikou's furious assault, attacking across the full width of the circle with her long, weighted cord.

Naruto was on the ground, doing two handstand push-ups for each second as he counted them off, "18, 19, 20, dattebayo!" He flipped down to his feet and then formed the seal for a bunshin as he leapt again, one heading for Lee on the right, one for Rikou on the left, and one straight across to the far side of the circle. One of the kunoichi's weights sailed through that last, the puff of smoke invisible in the mist as it was disrupted, while the one heading for the Proud Green Beast dissolved on its own after he dodged out of the way. Rikou's second cord was already wrapping around her real team mate, but too late - the blond's snap kick knocked her off her perch and set himself spinning to unwind the flat silk binding. Coming to a halt on a post next to the one she'd been occupying, he bounced exuberantly and crowed, "YEAH! Got'cha back!"

"You should WATCH your back," the bowl-cut boy reminded helpfully, even as he landed a kick to the side of Naruto's post and sent him flailing, to fall right in Rikou's arms as she was climbing to her feet. He bounced back from the springy, greenwood post, reaching overhead to grab the one he had rebounded towards and vault to the top.

After making sure Naruto's face had been in place long enough for him to realize where she was holding it, Rikou let the struggling genin disentangle himself and get into another handstand, obviously trying to pretend the blood had rushed to his cheeks from being upside down. *He's so cute when he's like that,* she thought to herself, forming a short burst of hand seals before beginning her own series of backflips. Feeling the faint tingle across her scalp, the Maito heiress called out excitedly, "YOSH! Kunoichi Ninpo: Koyonaigamigata no Jutsu ... SUCCESS!" No matter how boldly she expressed the explosive energy of her glorious springtime of youth, she'd never have to worry about looking bad while doing it! The sheer joy of it was enough to buoy her up and do a double backflip on the count of twelve.

Not to be left out, Lee jumped down on his own, and began another series of squat-thrusts.

Wiping new tears of pride from his eyes, Gai waited for the genin to complete their forfeits before teleporting again, appearing in a puff of smoke atop one of the poles. "AN EXCELLENT BATTLE, MY STUDENTS!" he bellowed, "Your youthful spirit has brought tears to my eyes! Alas, I must sadly announce that our usual morning practice is impossible for the next while, but DO NOT DESPAIR!" He leapt down form the pole, landing in another action-hero pose before continuing, "The burning passion of your springtime of youth shall NOT be ignored! We will be forgoing it only because our wise and generous Hokage has assigned a long-term mission to Team Explosive Youth!"

One glance at the mission scroll his sensei was brandishing was enough to have the hyperactive blond hopping around and shouting his excitement to the world. "YEAH! YEAH! C-RANK MISSION! And next, B-Rank, and A-Rank, and S-Rank, and then I'll be Hokage and surpass all previous Hokages IN MY FLOWERING SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH! DATTEBAYO!" He bounced off an overhanging bough and homed in on the powerposing jounin, taking uncommon initiative in wrapping the man in a tacklehug. "OH GAI-SENSEI! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR GETTING US A COOLER MISSION!"

Their own excited cries echoing across the training field, Lee and Rikou latched on from the sides, all four taking several minutes to recover themselves.

Gai was in what might be called 'serious mode' as the team collected again at the village gates, each carrying a backpack. The lack of training weights on her calves left Rikou with a tan line, and even the boys' jumpsuits were a bit darker on the lower legs, since they wore the weights continually except to wash and for two hours of their training each day to practice moving without them and the massive difference they caused in their center of balance. He gave each only a brief arm-clasp as they arrived, then checked over their equipment. Finding everything in order - if a bit heavy on the instant ramen for Naruto, but if the boy wanted to challenge himself with just a LITTLE extra weight, who was Gai to dissuade him? He did make Lee dump about half of the rocks in his pack, though - the bowl-cut jounin took his customary explanation pose to go over the assignment details.

"The mission that Hokage-sama has entrusted to Team Explosive Youth will require your top speed," he reminded them, explaining, "We will be searching for a certain man to deliver a top secret scroll! He was last seen near the seaside town of Kirika, on the Taimatsu Peninsula, and since many people celebrate the Planting Festival there this time of year, he should still be nearby." The usual enthusiastic expression on his super-fuzzy face turned stern for a moment as Gai instructed, "This mission, it has a strict time limit. Even if we meet bandits or enemy ninja, the first priority is to go forward, without spending time on a fight."

Lee nodded seriously, taking notes in his little book, but Naruto kicked at the ground in disgust and scoffed, swinging his pack by one strap in irritation. Rikou, snuggled up to the blond boy's back, shot a frown at her father over his shoulder, then heaved a sigh after it. "Moooooou, SENSEI..." he complained, trying to ignore the warm, soft girl against his back (and especially those and his imagination has to be running away with him because his jacket's too thick to feel *that* and it's just Rikou being huggy again and he's talking to Gai-sensei about the mission, dammit!) "How can we prove our strength as ninja if we run away from the fight? That's too uncool!"

Suddenly, Gai had replaced Rikou, and was delivering a power-noogie instead of a snuggle. "FOOL!" he scolded. "Knowing when the mission outweighs a battle is the MOST IMPORTANT strength of a ninja! To remember, you must do five hundred one-arm pushups with each arm as soon as we arrive!" Just as suddenly released, the blond staggered against his kunoichi team mate, who'd appeared off-balance in front of him when the jounin had used 'Kawarimi' to switch places with her. Unable to maintain his anger, the older man swept both of them into a crushing hug, proclaiming, "EVEN THOUGH IT'S WRONG, I STILL FORGIVE YOU MY STUDENT, FOR THE EAGER SPIRIT OF YOUTH IS WHAT DRIVES YOU! OOOOOOOH!"

"OH, GAI SENSEI!" Lee exclaimed, piling on from the other side. "YOU'RE SO MAGNANIMOUS!"

Naruto and Rikou may have made positive noises, or may have been merely praying to the Kami of the Breathing Miracle. They were turned loose before going completely blue, however, and after a few gasps the foxy blond shouldered his backpack and asked, "Hey, hey, sensei, who are we looking for, anyway? You didn't tell us what he looks like or anything!"

"The man we are searching for has not been in Konoha for many years," Gai explained seriously, "but he has been seen wearing a dark green shirt and pants, with a red vest and sandals, carries a large scroll on a shoulder strap, and has long, spiky white hair. He is... Jiraya, frog summoner of the Leaf's Legendary Three!" Pointing dramatically out through the open gate, he commanded, "TEAM EXPLOSIVE YOUTH! HASSHIN!" There were four muted booms like distant thunder as the team pushed off, literally leaping to full speed and raising a cloud of dust. The gate guard on duty muttered a curse on over-enthusiastic youth-nuts as it subsided, then used a doton jutsu to smooth out the deep footprint craters left behind in the path.

They'd had to stop for rest at night and (briefly) every so often during the daylight hours, of course, because even as well conditioned as they were, the kids were still rookie genin. Even so, they were closing in on a destination most ninja would call a week away after only four days, and it was barely mid-afternoon. Gai had gone to scout ahead while his subordinates refilled their canteens at a small stream and munched granola bars. They hadn't spoken much during the trip, and what little conversation they'd made was conducted in hushed whispers, words distorted by avoiding the sibilants that would carry more easily to alert possible enemies to their presence.

That fact might have surprised someone who only knew the boisterous personalities Gai and his charges usually presented, but he hadn't achieved the Elite Jounin rank without understanding the concept of field discipline and - since part of their objective was to avoid confrontations anyway - he'd made a stealth drill part of the exercise. Naruto was now up to one thousand one-armed push ups on each arm, 1500 sit ups, and six hundred squat-thrusts due on arrival as penalty for forgetting to keep his voice down, Rikou only slightly less, and Lee almost half again as many more. Still, even he'd finally gotten the hang of it, and as his idol appeared the bowl-cut wearing genin contented himself with springing to his feet with open arms and shining eyes.

Momentarily overcome with pride at their progress, Gai shared a quick hug with his younger doppelganger, then stepped back to give them all a thumbs-up, super-bushy moustache twitching as he fought to keep from showing a smile that could give away their position with the telltale glint of reflected sunlight. Manly tears escaped the corners of his eyes as the genin followed suit, and sniffles normally hidden by exclamations of excitement sounded softly in the small clearing.

Bringing his youthful passion once more under control, Gai signaled for a huddle, murmuring seriously once the circle was complete, "A party of smugglers have infested the clearing ahead; they appear to be two groups trading contraband. We would avoid them like all others up to now, but..." The jounin's features twisted into a surprisingly fierce scowl. "They are trading opium, to poison the spirited youth of Fire Country." He drew a kunai and scratched a quick sketch into the dirt, an irregular circle with two squares inside. Pointing to the larger square, he explained, "We'll make a single attack as we pass through. This is where the opium crates are stacked, the other area is kegs of fire-apple whiskey. I'll go first and knock the crates in the air, Lee, you follow and smash as many open as you can while bouncing between them. Rikou will be next, and perform 'Misukurinuku' to dissolve the opium in the broken crates - this stream joins another on the low side of the clearing, here, for you to draw on. Naruto, you take the rear. Throw 'Kaen' to set the kegs alight. There are many thugs in the area but none appear to be ninja so there should be no pursuit, but if one of them is surprising remember that the priority is to escape and continue the mission." Looking around the circle Gai saw Lee nodding seriously, while Naruto bounced in excitement at finally getting to use some ninjutsu on this mission and Rikou watched him with a smile for how happy he seemed.

The plan had gone off without a hitch, leaving the smugglers milling about in confusion and cursing ninja brats who show up out of nowhere to ruin a deal worth thousands of ryo - apparently Gai had blazed through too quickly to be seen for more than a streak, even though he'd had to kick over a dozen large crates into the air as he'd passed. Lee had hardly been any slower, ricocheting from one to the next and flinging them back down with shattering force, but Rikou had to pause, balancing in mid-air on the jet of water as she played it across the wreckage before continuing on, and Naruto had actually landed and stood on one of the less intelligent thugs' head for his part. The prehistoric-looking enforcer had just started reaching up to feel around on his noggin and even the fastest of his fellows were still drawing their weapons as the Blazing Orange Wildfire bounced away again, laughing madly at how pathetic the whole encounter was - he'd had tougher opposition playing pranks on that mean old guy with the vegetable stall in Konoha Market than from both gangs put together.

Team Explosive Youth split up once they reached Kirika, searching block by block after an initial sweep at the main shrine, hoping to find their target before another night passed (or they'd all do 500 wind sprints.) Now the glorious sunset tapestry of orange and gold had faded to a thin glow on the horizon, and still they'd had no luck. Naruto's stomach rumbled louder than his footsteps as he jumped up and clung to a lamp post to survey the lightly traveled side street, delicious smells of miso and noodles wafting out of a nearby restaurant.

"The passionate flames of a youthful spirit need a good fuel supply," he reasoned, "I'll just look for him inside while I get some food, dattebayo!" Ignoring the handful of passerby who'd stopped to point and marvel at a boy standing sideways on a lamp post, he hopped down and skipped toward the entrance, eyes screwed up with a wide foxy grin, only to run into some one coming out. The blond stumbled backwards a couple of steps before regaining his balance, and opened his mouth to curse out the old fool who'd...

"Ano sa, ano sa, what did Gai-sensei say the guy we're looking for was like again?" he asked himself, frowning in concentration. He snapped his fingers and looked closely at the bemused older man, counting the points off as he catalogued them. "Bushy white hair, yep, green top and pants, yep, red vest and sandals, big scroll, yep yep..." The orange-clad genin crossed his arms and nodded decisively. "...but a legendary ninja wouldn't have such a stupid look; must be the wrong guy. Sorry Oji-san!"

The stranger's jaw dropped, eyes blank with shocked dismay.

"Ne, if you see a ninja who looks like you, tell him there's an important message from the Hidden Leaf, okay?" Naruto continued, obliviously.

"Why you little..." The traveler recovered himself, then delivered a smack that left the boy rubbing his shoulder agreivedly. Assured that he was paying attention, the white-maned man pointedly adjusted his horned hitae-ate, then took up a dramatic pose (Gallant Jiraya Appears) and announced, "I am... Legendary Frog of the Three Ninja... the handsome wanderer who's irresistible to women... Jiraya-sama!" (Ore wa... Densetsu no Gero San-nin, etc.)

"Ero-sennin?" Naruto mumbled, unimpressed. Jiraya's eyebrow twitched, but before he could protest his mangled title the blonde burst into motion, jumping excitedly as he hollered, "Okay, okay! Now *I'LL* introduce myself!" Coming down into a crouch, he hurtled up into the air, at least twenty five feet by the older man's experienced eye. Forming a tiger seal, the boy blasted off a pair of 'Kaen,' one upward to signal his team mates, the other down to light a short-lived bonfire in the street to pose in front of as he landed. "Like an erupting volcano, the Leaf's Blazing Orange Wildfire, Uzumaki Naruto has arrived, dattebayo!" the blond shouted, one arm extended in a thumbs-up and the fire light glinting off of a brilliant smile.

He missed the quickly-suppressed look of shock that crossed his target's face. *Uzumaki Naruto... This is that boy?* the wandering ninja thought, deciding, *This should be interesting.*

A brilliant streamer of flame lit up the dusk, drawing the attention of the ninja currently searching Kirika. Well, Gai happened to be indoors at the time, so he missed it - he knew his target, and was checking the geisha parlors himself to protect his students' precious, youthful innocence. Lee and Rikou arrived in time to see Naruto rubbing his head as he admitted to not actually knowing what the important message is, because their sensei had the scroll.

Rikou nodded affirmatively and noted, "He said that Sandaime-sama chose our team specifically, because it had a strict time limit to get to you."

"Un, un," Lee agreed. "With youthful spirit to lend us wings, not even a messenger hawk could have defeated us!"

Jiraya gave the green-suited boy a skeptical look, then blinked, put together the genins' speed, speech patterns, and outfits, then drawled, "Your sensei... It's Maito Gai, isn't it?"

Both boys gasped at this incredible feat of deduction, while Rikou flashed a grin and victory-sign, but the sennin was no longer paying attention. The street had emptied again with the displays of ninja skill apparently finished, and the three genin paled as a spike of ice suddenly burst from the ground, drilling up through the man they'd been sent to find in a gory spray of blood and mangled flesh.

"E-ero sennin?" Naruto stuttered, frozen in shock and unable even to look around as cruel laughter echoed around the small street, all the more terrible as it cut through the faint sounds of celebration from the festival still ongoing nearby.

"So, it seems one of you was an adult after all." The voice was a woman's, with a clipped regional accent and cold with contempt.

Appearing from the white wall of a building opposite the restaurant that had originally attracted the blond genin's attention, a man contradicted her, his tone just as icy. "No, just a kid who got old. An adult should know better than to meddle with things that aren't their concern." He was dressed in a sleeveless, light grey jumpsuit with blue piping at the seams, loose as if it was intended to be worn over a bulky inner layer, with a hitae-ate bearing an unfamiliar insignia - four small dots in an irregular pattern - marred by the deep slash of a nuke-nin. The unknown nin's skin was pale while his hair and eyes were dark, and his right arm snapped up to fire a cord from the grapple launcher strapped to it to tie up Lee, who'd begun to shake off his shock.

At almost the same instant, a second grapple line came from the kunoichi behind them, joining with the first to restrain the bowl-cut genin, who vibrated in place like a spring as he tried to lunge free at the last moment only to be jerked back. She drew a handful of kunai, bringing her left arm back and aiming for three simultaneous, lethal strikes.

Before the hits could land, Rikou broke out of her immobility, two kunai of her own slicing Lee free to dodge, while a leaping tackle took her and Naruto out of the line of fire. Quickly disentangling herself for once, the young kunoichi rolled back to her feet, shouting, "We're not so easy!" as she quickly slipped the coil of silk cord from her shoulder and attached another pair of kunai. Naruto was right beside her, but still in a fugue state thinking of how quickly their mission had gone bad. Somewhat dazedly, he brought his hands up, but the signs to activate 'Hiyoroi' just wouldn't form.

Delayed momentarily to struggle free of the restraining cords, Lee too hopped to his feet, taking up the initial stance of the Gouken taijutsu style. He and Rikou formed up in front of the still-shocked blond, their opponents squaring off arrogantly a few steps away after rewinding the cut ends of their grapple lines.

"You brats obviously have no idea who you're dealing with," the man gloated, smirking. "Since it would be tragic for your young lives to end and not even be able to tell Shinigami who killed you, we'll introduce ourselves. I'm Atsuikaze Gomaru." The snow-nin drew a fuuma shuriken as he spoke, and set it to spinning around the fingers of his off hand, whirls of dust kicking up around him as the nuke-nin fed chakra into his weapon and thence to the air.

Drawing the twin katana poking over her shoulders, the woman continued, "And I'm Atsuikaze Gin, called the Burning Edge of Hidden Snow." One ready to guard, the other poised to attack, a line of thin orange flames traced down each blade. "Before we left Snow Country, we were full jounin! Some brats making trouble out of school... It may be too much for ordinary guys, but we'll kill you instantly!" She let out another sarcastic chuckle, and everyone tensed as another outbreak of violence became immanent.

Suddenly, a huge cloud of smoke billowed up from the ground between the genin and their older assailants. "Well, since everyone's introducing themselves, I'll do it also!" The voice that rang out was familiar to Naruto - he'd heard it only minutes before. He snapped to attention, belatedly taking the partner stance to Lee's for paired Gouken as the air cleared to reveal a huge, battle scarred, orange and blue toad the size of a horse, which had somehow appeared in the street facing the Snow nuke-nin. It was wearing the painted helmet and shoulder armor of a samurai, with a full daisho set sheathed on various bits of harness on its back and hips, and standing proudly on its head...

"The paragon of manliness no woman can resist... Frog of the Legendary Three Ninja..." The air became heavy with killing intent as he paused, and made a slight change in his usual spiel. "... also known as the Leaf's White-Maned Demon, I am Jiraya-sama." His abundance of spiky white locks bristled and shifted in an unseen wind, before he continued, "These little buds are in my care, but if you leave now, I'll let you escape," he growled. The toad's crouch shifted into an iajutsu stance to lend still more weight to the threat, its golden eyes narrowed and gleaming.

If Gin and Gomaru had been pale before, they were positively pallid now. The flames guttered out along the Snow kunoichi's katana, while her brother's fuuma shuriken fell with a clang from suddenly nerveless fingers. There was another moment of tension, then-

Jiraya jumped off of the toad, shouting "BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!" then burst out laughing as the two nuke-nin vanished, leaving only two small clouds of dust and a faint acrid odor. Still chuckling, he turned and shared a high-five with the toad, exclaiming, "Good one, eh Gamakenshi?"

"Got to be some benefit to being an old war dog, Jiraya. Ne, make sure you have some sake for me next time, you cheapskate," the summon replied, his voice gravelly in a way that went beyond mere stereotypical croaking - the well-worn vocal cords of a career soldier. Clicking his katana back firmly into its sheath, he turned and gave the genin a jaunty wave, then vanished in another huge cloud of chakra smoke.

The sudden release of tension made Rikou giggle as Jiraya hammed it up clapping imagined dust off his hands with what he obviously considered to be a "cool" expression (Gallant Jiraya is Modest in Victory), while Lee was practically bouncing at the Toad Sennin's dazzling display of youthful spirit. Naruto, though...

He had slumped, then the hand he'd had extended in the initial stance of Gouken, had clenched as dejection turned into self-disgust at the terror of death that had frozen him. "... kuso ... Kuso! KUSO!" he swore, staring at his useless fist. Blind to his team mates' confused looks, he muttered to himself, "Nothing... I couldn't do anything... Damn!"

Gai leapt down from the perch he'd found on a nearby roof waiting for an opportunity to surprise the enemy shinobi, face set in a silent (for once) look of concern. The first shock of combat could be traumatic for even the brightest flower of youth, exposed to the harsh world, but his heart still knew confidence... Yes, he could practically see the bonfire of Naruto's spirit blaze up as the boy's head rose once more, flashing in his eyes!

"I SWEAR IT!" the blond proclaimed, "I'll fill this fist with the fire of youth, and strike instantly when an enemy appears, dattebayo!"

"NARUTO!" his sensei shouted, too moved to keep still another instant. The jumpsuit-clad jounin swept him into a rough embrace, bellowing "YOUR YOUTH IS BURNING BRILLIANTLY!" Lee and Rikou piled on from the sides briefly, but a pointed cough from Jiraya broke up the impending celebration of passionate spirit.

"... You can only be a Maito," the older ninja observed, restating his earlier deduction. "The short one said you were looking for me?" Ignoring Naruto's indignant protests, he continued, "Eh, but maybe we should get out of here before the Kirika Guard asks annoying questions. Come with me."

They'd gone a few streets away to a different restaurant, the three genin filling one side of a corner booth while Gai and Jiraya took the one with a better view of the dining room. Naruto was now happily demolishing the supply of a local specialty flavor of ramen while Jiraya studied the scroll his old sensei had sent for him, and his team mates dug into meals of their own at more moderate speeds.

"Hmm, this is troublesome," the sennin said at last, rolling the scroll up again with a snap. He kept his voice low, and unobtrusively scanned the dining room for anyone coming their way or paying undue attention. "A criminal group based here in Kirika is said to be smuggling some kind of new, super-powerful ninja tool from Snow Country in the far south, something that makes even an Academy drop-out thug as strong as a chuunin. Sandaime wants me to investigate, since I've spent so much time travelling in other countries and I'm familiar with foreign techniques and equipment. He assigned your team as my subordinates, to either recover or destroy these nin-tools. Since we just met two missing-nin from Hidden Snow, it seems there's something to it." His spiky white hair rustled as he shook his head. "But the report said the criminals are not shinobi, with two jounin working for them it's too much for runts straight out of the Academy."

Rikou and Lee's faces fell at this last comment, but while Gai had a look that said he was obviously preparing another (loud) speech on the merits of youth and spirit, it was Naruto who spoke up first, jabbing his chopsticks at Jiraya accusingly. "Hey, hey old man! I said I'd strike instantly if an enemy of Konoha appeared, and I won't take back those words! I don't care who it is; that's my ninja way, dattebayo!" He gave the toad hermit his best outraged glare before ranting on. "What's the big deal anyway, Gai-sensei? You told us on our very first day that three genin could beat a jounin with teamwork and the power of youth!"

"It's so, it's so," Rikou confirmed, "You said that when you gave us a second chance by fighting you, after misunderstanding the obstacle course!"

Lee straightened in his seat, obviously wanting to bounce to his feet but stuck next to the wall on the bench. He brandished a fist in enthusiasm, however, and his eyes burned with an inner fire as he exclaimed, "YOSH! Gai-sensei, with your permission we'll overcome the enemy with the teamwork of youthful energy!"

Jiraya just sighed and took a deep swig of his sake as the conversation went downhill from there.

The boss of the Two Gees gang, Noumu, was trying to compose a report about the loss of the opium shipment that wouldn't get him a complementary close-up tour of the harbor when suddenly the kunoichi appeared. The jacket of his business suit was draped over a nearby plant pot, and he'd rolled up his sleeves to keep them from trailing into the fresh ink. A pale scar stood out under one eye as his face flushed, and he cursed furiously as surprise made him spill the inkwell across the papers on the low desk. He *hated* using nuke-nin - they drew too much attention, and were always arrogant bastards with no respect for the person paying their fee. He sneered as the former Snow-nin stepped fully into the light, growling, "So, you're back already. Did you at least send those interfering brats to hell?"

"Oyabun," Gin greeted the man sarcastically, though the superior smirk faded at the question. "There's some trouble with the brats. They're with Jiraya of the Legendary Three, the White-Maned Demon who killed an entire Hidden Stone brigade to the last man in their war against the Leaf. He's way too much for even us, unless..."

Even as she trailed off, her brother stepped out of another corner of the office. "That captain only hired us as extra security for the voyage, but we know what the ship was carrying anyway," he explained. "We were there when this new model was tested, when the former Jounin who became Snow Country's Daimyo personally wiped out everyone in Hidden Snow who opposed him... Everyone but us, the only ones to escape. With that armor, even Jiraya becomes easy."

"Are you INSANE!" Noumu sputtered apoplectically. "If President Gatou heard the shipment was opened -"

"Don't be fooled by his other writing," Gin interrupted, "Jiraya is a master in collecting information. Is it better if he finds out about your deal and reports it to the Leaf?"

The crime boss could only grind his teeth and pound a fist against the desktop, beside the unreadable inky mess that had been his report.

Unusually, none of the members of Team Gai were up particularly early the next morning. It seemed that Lee had accidentally drank Jiraya's bottle of sake instead of his own grape pop and revealed an unexpected natural affinity for Drunken Style taijutsu, leaving him with a nasty first hangover and the rest of them too sore from trying to restrain him to greet the dawn with a few hundred pushups, crunches, dashes, squats, etc. as they were accustomed to doing. They'd had only time for a single warm-up lap around the city before the shops began to open, so they could buy new sets of training weights and get breakfast. Jiraya had blearily wandered out to join them then, having been out late gathering information - or at least, so he'd said, though the strong smell of sake and perfume the older man had exuded when he'd finally turned in might have made them wonder, had they not been sleeping the sound sleep of the exhausted at the time. Even now all of them avoided raising their voice.

A few cups of coffee later, the sennin finally came to full awareness, heaving a mighty yawn. "So, Gai," he finally began. "I saw the short one using the wall-climbing skill yesterday, but his control still sucks. With a jounin for each of us and the possibility of them using these new tools, the other thugs will be up to your genin. Have you tried them on water walking yet? I don't know about your clone or your daughter, but Uzumaki at least should have the chakra for some heavy ninjutsu if he got the control. I have 'that' contract, after all." The blond's indignant outburst was cut short as Jiraya praised him in the same breath, while Rikou mainly looked curious about the "contract" mentioned... Lee frowned and said nothing, pushing the veggies and rice in his bowl around with the end of his chopsticks.

Gai put a hand on the embarrassed boy's shoulder and replied seriously, "Due to a certain condition, Lee has no ability in ninjutsu or genjutsu - this limit has been overcome just enough that he can use 'Silent Cat's Foot' to avoid damaging the ground with the weight of his training gear. Because of this he trains only in taijutsu, and he has already become an amazing ninja using only that. With excellent physical conditioning, Rikou has gained a much greater chakra reserve than most genin kunoichi, and her control is also very good. Naruto's chakra is remarkable indeed though he still needs more control, as you noticed, and if you will allow it I think 'that' jutsu would be an excellent challenge for him to overcome!" Still seated, the jounin gave his best thumbs-up and grin, Naruto echoing it while Lee squared himself with a look of resolve, and Rikou smiled gently to see her team mates happy again.

"I have some time this morning before I'll be able to get in touch with my contacts - might as well use it to spend a little time with each of them. I know a good place to train on the edge of town."

The toad hermit had led them to a small beach secluded between two rocky headlands, sandy on one end but with ever-larger pebbles and rocks until the far end was nothing but a collection of boulders interspersed with tidal pools. Gai had taken Naruto and Rikou to one of the larger ones to explain the water-walking exercise while Lee and Jiraya stayed on the dry sand. He was slightly impressed at how the boy's steps left only the slightest mark even there - mastering the Silent Cat's Foot to that level was something few ninja bothered with until reaching the ANBU as high-level chuunin. "So, taijutsu only, eh?" he said, getting down to business.

"YOSH! I will prove that I can become an excellent ninja with taijutsu alone, for that is my ninja way!" Evidently, either Lee's hangover had faded, or he'd taken it as another challenge to be overcome with youth and spirit.

Judging by his still faintly blood shot eyes and the ever-so-slight wince at the sound of his own voice, Jiraya concluded it was the latter. *Man, what a lightweight,* he thought to himself, *but all things considered it's probably best if he doesn't try to build up a tolerance.* Aloud he said, "Really... if you're sure about that I suppose I'd better test your taijutsu, then." Lee skipped back a few feet and snapped into a ready stance, Jiraya likewise jumping clear, but rather than a stance of his own he bit his thumb and flashed through a few hand seals, before slapping his palm on the ground and announcing, "Ninpo: Kuchiose no Jutsu!" A cloud of chakra smoke burst up from the impact point, clearing to reveal a pair of frogs, one about the size of a large dog, green and sleek, with a sheathed katana gripped ready to draw, the other man sized, sky blue and warty, with the orange robe and forehead markings of a monk. "Gamatachiko, Gamakensei," the white-haired man greeted them. "This is just a training match, so don't go too far."

Gamatachiko blinked and relaxed a bit, sword poofing away only to be replaced a moment later by a bokken, then shifted to a high guard stance. "Mou, this grit and salty wind is bad for my complexion. He'd better be fun!" she complained.

Gamakensei nodded contemplatively, then spoke, his voice deep and calm like high mountain pond. "Testing a new student, Jiraya? Interesting."

The old man frowned, though it didn't seem to be directed at anyone present. "No, just making a point. Start off easy and then bring it up, you two." He walked off to the side to observe, raising a hand then slashing downward. "BEGIN!"

Gamakensei crouched and leapt at the boy, who easily dodged aside then hopped over the follow-up back kick when the blue frog landed. Gamatachiko simply vanished and reappeared to strike, the force of the blow setting Lee spinning sideways in the air. He landed in a handstand that turned into a rising spiral kick, more to gain space again than as a true attack, then curled up and turned the momentum into a heel drop as Gamakensei darted in again.

That one landed, striking the monk cleanly in the shoulder, but was shrugged off with little more than a grunt, and the rain of open-palm strikes that knocked the green-suited boy away were only slightly weaker from that arm. Lee flipped and sprang into the air again over another swipe from Gamatachiko's bokken, landing on the blade as she followed through and stealing that momentum to speed a leap back at her partner to lead with a knee to his snout, followed by axe-handle strikes to both shoulders this time.

The three sprang apart, and when the swordmistress spoke again, there was a degree of respect in her voice. "Looks like this one does have some skill... we can take him a bit seriously."

"Yes," Gamakensei agreed. "His strength is remarkable for a youngling." He rolled his shoulders to work out the stinging blows, then took up a power stance and let out a kiyai. A thin layer of sand blasted away from his feet, drifting for a moment before settling back to the beach. Jiraya just folded his arms off to the side, watching impassively as the fight moved to the next level.

continued in part B


	3. TXY: Search for Gero Sennin 2 of 3

20111011 - chopped in thirds for FFn

continued from part A

Naruto and Rikou had just started to move beyond the basics of water-walking to doing a light practice routine on the surface of the tidal pool when the frog sennin left Lee and the summons to their sparring and walked over, though not without dunking their feet every few seconds as their control fluctuated. "So, you guys ready to learn a super-cool jutsu?" he called out with a smirk, before adding as an aside, "Gai, I assume you want to use your own contract for your girl, right?"

"YOSH!" the jounin replied, throwing a thumbs up for emphasis. "The youthful spirit of the Turtle clan will surely welcome its newest trainee!"

"Eh, sure..." Jiraya muttered - sure, he was all about youthful spirit himself, at least youthful, spirited women, but the Maito clan all took it way too far. Collecting himself, he ordered the two genin off the pool so they could see. "Alright you two, watch closely. I'll go first, then you, Gai." He bit his thumb and wiped some blood across his palm, then flipped slowly through the boar, dog, bird, monkey, and sheep seals before slapping the bloody hand down and again announcing, "Kuchiose no jutsu!"

The frog that appeared this time was covered in dark flame-like markings and carried a huge scroll in its mouth. It blinked as the cloud of chakra smoke dispersed, but otherwise gave no reaction as it summoner explained, "The summoning technique is one type of space-time ninjutsu, that calls a spirit creature through a contract and a sacrifice of blood and life energy - chakra - to help out the caster either in battle or in other ways. There's all kinds of summon creatures, but I deal with the frogs, and taught it to the Yondaime Hokage." With a quelling glare at the blond brat's (relatively) less than impressed reaction, he added, "So you'd better appreciate it, kid."

Naruto had been feeling a bit sad that his teacher was going to make him learn a different summon creature when he had a contract of his own - surely Gai-sensei would have chosen the creatures with the most youthful power, right? But, the magic words 'Yondaime Hokage' quickly had him bouncing in place again - the greatest hero of the Leaf, the one who killed the kyuubi no kitsune to protect the passionate youth of Konoha! "Yeah! Yeah! Yondaime is almost as cool as Gai-sensei, dattebayo! I'll summon frogs with shining energy and surpass all previous Hokage!"

Jiraya somehow managed to keep his expression blank, drawling, "Riiiiiight... Whatever. Gai, it's your turn."

Quickly wiping away a tear that had forced its way through his 'stern, serious sensei' facade at his student's display of spirit, the jounin planted himself again, hands on his hips. "Rikou, my daughter! Are you prepared to face this Maito clan rite of passage!" he bellowed cheerfully.

Snapping to attention, the pink-clad genin barked out, "Yes sir, father! I'll pass this trial with diligence and vigor!"

It was too much for Gai's restraint. He swept the girl into his arms, manly tears of pride streaming down his cheeks as he shouted, "Rikou! Your youthful vocabulary continues to improve!"

"Tousan!"

"Rikou!"

"Tousan!"

"Rikou!"

Fortunately for Jiraya's rapidly waning patience, the rising tide had brought waves closer in, and a shower of cool spray as one crashed over the rocks behind them brought the pair back to the matter at hand before they got too far into their own little world, or for that matter before Naruto could join them.

Separating again, Gai returned to his serious mode, and went slowly through the same blood-and-seals procedure. As the chakra smoke from the summoning cleared, he explained further, "Normally, summoning is considered to be a jounin-level skill, because it uses a great amount of chakra. Due to certain circumstances, Naruto is the opposite of Lee in this area - he produces so much chakra it becomes difficult to control, therefore such a technique is fine for him. With your ability, Rikou, you should not summon more than one small animal in a short time, or you will use too much of your chakra... HOWEVER! For training purposes, the use of large amounts of energy is A-OK! That is the way to expand your chakra, to build it EVER HIGHER with the BOUNDLESS SPIRIT OF YOUTH!" He took up his favorite pose again, wink, thumb, glinting smile and all, and the red and golden yellow turtle who'd appeared mirrored it as best a four-legged creature with barely-mobile toes could do.

Despite himself, a shiver traveled down Jiraya's spine at the prospect of this man having so much influence over children. *At least I only have to put up with them for a short time... though it makes me wonder what his family would think, that Naruto is growing up in such a way,* he thought. *Heheh, I think I'd like to have seen it. And anyway, summoning will be a good way for him to learn how to control the kyuubi's chakra.*

Heedless of the older man's introspection, Gai tuned back to his summon, commanding, "It's time!"

"Okay!" the turtle replied, in a surprisingly smooth tenor as he withdrew one foreleg into his shell, "The legendary Contract Scroll of the Turtle Clan... Appears!"

And, indeed, when the leg extended again, a scroll similar to the one still clutched in Jiraya's frog's mouth was carefully gripped in its claws. A subtle gesture from the sennin prompted his own summon to unroll their scroll simultaneously, one each in front of the genin students. Though he'd really rather have switched, he let Gai attend to the girl (All that wonderful, elastic, tight Aburame silk! Pity about the chest, but no worthy fruit ripens overnight...) and explained the process to Naruto.

"This is the Toad Contract, that has been passed down through many generations. You write your name in blood, and below that stamp your fingerprints. Then, when you want to call them, you mold chakra, form the seals, and place the hand you signed the contract with down where you want the frog to appear. Got it?"

"Yeah! Yeah!" the boy responded, looking over the scroll curiously. As might be expected from people finger painting with their own blood, the penmanship was... really bad. Almost amazingly bad, in fact. There was a splotch that could, just, be associated with 'Jiraya,' though the family name was unintelligible, and then another that could be... well, something-rashi Ka-something, or maybe Mi-something... and then the blank spaces began.

With a small shrug he gave up on trying to read it, slashed open the pad of his thumb on a sharp tooth and went to work, adding a few unnecessary spirals the way he used to in his vandalism days before Gai-sensei had taken him even unofficially as a student. Afterward, of course, he'd been far too busy training with all the passion of his youth to do more than a minimal amount of pranking. Still, when your name means "Swirling spiral" and you aspire to leadership of a country whose symbol is also a spiral, some things just seem to come naturally. It did help that the cut wasn't healing up as fast as usual, though there was an odd tingle where it touched the parchment so maybe that was an effect of the contract scroll itself. Soon enough he was finished, and wiped his fingertips across the bloody thumb with a flourish, then stamped them on the scroll. His guess about the scroll affecting the wound firmed up more as there was a hot feeling - in all the fingers, not just his thumb - where the blood and flesh met the page, then when he lifted them away all the blood stayed on the scroll and his thumb was completely healed.

"And so, and so, that's it, right!" he asked excitedly, springing to his feet again as the scroll rolled itself up with a snap.

"You got it, kid. Due to that special condition, you should have a second type of chakra that'll let you summon the stronger frogs, but that'll probably need a different circumstance to come out at first. For now, just mold as much of your normal chakra as you can and give it a shot!"

Seeing that Rikou was also ready to try, Naruto shot her a flashing grin, then they each went through the procedure, exclaiming in unison, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" as a smallish cloud of smoke boiled out around their hands, slowly clearing away to reveal...

A fat tadpole, barely larger than the first joint of Naruto's thumb without the tail, and a little leatherback about the same size. Naruto's flailed helplessly on the sand for a few seconds before poofing away again, while the baby sea turtle made a break for the waves.

Even Gai was unable to produce much enthusiasm over performance like that, while Jiraya muttered, "Pah, they really don't have any talent at it..."

Normally, of course, such a comment would be taken poorly, but the students of Maito Gai knew better - that talent could be as much of a disadvantage as anything, because it made you complacent if you didn't have to truly put in hard work. Plus, making an animal appear from nothing was just COOL! "Okay, okay!" Naruto shouted, bouncing in ever-increasing excitement. "One more time, with youth and spirit! Full power, dattebayo! Ready, Rikou?"

"Here I go, Naruto-kun! Absolutely everything!"

Visible shimmers of chakra raised around the pair as they concentrated in an initial Ram seal, before again nipping their thumbs, sealing, and slapping down a hand each. This time the smoke clouds at least were larger. Naruto and Rikou had to flop down to sit awkwardly among the stones as their bodies protested the amount of life energy they'd just expended, but at least this time when the clouds cleared away the results were closer to the size of a doubled fist. Naruto's blue and black frog had a stubby tail left and produced sounds half way between croaks and baby-talk, but Rikou's mottled brown and pink turtle seemed fully formed at least, a status confirmed when it spoke a moment later.

"Hewwo," it said, in the voice of a very young girl. "Does 'oo wanna pway tea?" A small curl of steam escaped from the gap where one leg joined the shell.

"Oh, you found a good turtle!" Gai enthused, leaning over to look closely. "Kamehorai, this is my daughter, Rikou, who has just learned to summon you! Tea-time is later, but for now please treat her kindly!"

"O-kay bi-ig bro-o!" the tiny turtle sing-songed, more steam curling away lazily as Jiraya's jaw dropped lower and lower in shock and disbelief that anyone would call a summon that obviously young and weak useful. "Bye-bye, den!"

Naruto's not-quite-frog waved one chubby forepaw at her, before poofing away as well. Undismayed, the boy mustered as much energy as he could manage and struggled to his feet, asking, "So, so, what makes that turtle good? Kamehorai, right? Does she breathe a huge jet of steam to blow away enemies like a super 'Murasu'?"

At this, Gai laughed heartily, then accidentally flattened the blond with a cheerful slap on the shoulder. "Maybe someday, but for now she can produce a stream of fresh, boiling hot water for tea or instant noodles. You see, Kamehorai is a baby hot-springs turtle. She's super-handy when you can't light a fire to cook on a mission!"

Rikou nodded dutifully, but Naruto's eyes had gone all huge and sparkly at the thought. "You... you mean, Kamehorai-chan can... make ramen... anywhere... AT ANY TIME? AAAH, THAT'S TOTALLY THE GREATEST NINJUTSU EVER! STUPID ERO-SENNIN! I WANNA SUMMON TURTLES TOO!"

Later that night, Jiraya and Gai were sharing some sake after the kids had gone to bed, worn out by a day of even more strenuous training than usual. Neither Naruto nor Rikou had been able to produce any more substantial summons, and Naruto had finally been convinced that even if he hadn't seen them yet the Frog Clan had members just as cool as a baby turtle who could pour hot water. Somehow. *Man, what a troublesome brat,* the older man thought, before knocking back a saucer of sake.

"So," he said, at length, "Naruto hasn't ever pulled out the fox's chakra?"

"No," Gai replied, lightly flushed from the alcohol but far indeed from drunk. "His natural stamina is incredible, even to me, however. With hard work and guts he has overcome much of his problem with controlling the chakra he has, so that even bunshin are easy - such fine manipulations were impossible when he began training, despite having been at the Academy for the full course already."

"Oh, he started it that early? I already thought it was a year too soon."

"Yes, due to that stamina and the strength of his youthful determination, he was able to excel at the physical tests used for an entrance exam two years before the usual age. But, because of that thing, many people disliked him, even among the teachers, and children learned to avoid him without knowing why. That's why he became a trouble maker, to force people to look at him, and why he was not able to learn much of what is expected of students. Thus, when the first graduation exam came up, he failed it..."

"But Naruto is truly filled with the power of youth! He simply began training extra hard! Then he met Lee, and combined their strength. I found them in a training area one day, and... how could I leave such shining flowers to wither alone? Rikou joined us as well shortly afterward, and all three trained together with passionate energy, until they passed the next exam. Due to their close ties of teamwork and friendship, and complementary skills, Hokage-sama approved them as a team and they became my official students!"

"Hmm." Jiraya leaned against one fist contemplatively. "They all have strong taijutsu, though obviously far more for Lee. That's fine, taijutsu is the fundamental of combat - it doesn't matter how many ninjutsu you know if you're not fast enough and don't have the stamina to pull them off, nor will genjutsu and book skills help you any when you meet an enemy who can break your best illusion and uses an original jutsu... or for that matter, if you're trying to be stealthy around other ninja who can sense chakra. More importantly, Naruto is the team's ninjutsu specialist, while Rikou is mid-range support, right?"

"Indeed. I have tested all of their element affinities before. Interestingly, Lee's is for earth-type - I have been looking for information about internal manipulation of earth-type chakra to strengthen the body, as he seems to do so instinctively even before the body hardening exercises of Gouken. Rikou is water-type, and has learned several beginning ninjutsu and genjutsu from her mother, a former Mist chuunin. Naruto's affinity is for air, but..." Gai shrugged a bit uncomfortably. "Air users are rare in Fire Country, so I started him on a few fire-type jutsu instead. The extra difficulty of using it has surely increased his control training still further!"

"Really? Beginners stick to their affinities for a reason, you know..."

"I am certain... Naruto and Rikou have already created their first elemental ninjutsu."

"An original jutsu that young... It's not just a variation on something else, is it?" Jiraya asked skeptically. He finished off the bottle, then waved for another.

"No... in fact, by the usual rules of ninjutsu, it is an impossible combination. Naruto mentioned it earlier - it's called 'Murasu' and it combines fire and water type chakra from two people that produces steam instead of canceling out. It is definitely at least a B-rank instant-kill jutsu, and I have forbidden using it on live targets except under special circumstances."

"Of course not, at least in peaceful times like this, there's no need for kids to bloody their hands that young. Let them get a more solid grasp on their skills, and more emotional maturity before taking on such burdens. Other countries may say the Leaf is weak for thinking this way, but I'd rather see happy kids if it's possible." Seeing his tablemate start to open his mouth and tear up, the frog sennin quickly raised a hand and cut him off. "Yes yes, power of youth, explosive springtime, I know. This is the best bar in town, I don't want you to get us thrown out with your ranting. Anyway, I was asking about 'that' chakra... Have him use up his normal chakra, then try to make it appear. If he can't do this at first, it may take some special training. In that kind of situation, I'll borrow him for a while."

Though restrained by the injunction to keep relatively quiet, Gai had clearly not heard anything past the words 'special training,' and his tears were once again flowing like waterfalls. "My cute students make me so proud, to be worthy of such consideration from one of the Legendary Three!"

Jiraya sighed and rubbed his temples through the fabric of his hitae-ite headband. "... Right. For now, if they just keep training it's probably okay. As for the investigation, I got some good information today, but it'll still take a day or two to follow it up, so keep them at it. Do you know turtles who can spar with Lee like my frogs, or should I summon Gamakensei and Gamatachiko again in the mornings?"

"Those are formidable frogs, but I do know some upright-stance turtles, who have strong taijutsu. They were taught extensively by my grandfather, training himself to be an excellent sensei for his first genin team. Of course, there are four of them, rather than three, but he decided the extra brother would only make his skills as a sensei improve more! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to summon them until just before receiving my own first team." He drained his saucer and let off a long belch before reminiscing, "I wonder how Nobegami is doing in his travels these days... perhaps it's time to send him a new message. Always such a serious child, who'd have expected him to take up the furthest ranging assignments he could find once graduating from my care!"

Jiraya had to admit, dealing with Gai for a single day already made him long to get back on the road himself, but he settled for throwing back another drink. How did the man maintain that much energy? Maybe twelve year olds got along with him because he was just as hyperactive as they were...

It was late afternoon the following day when the next contact was made with their opponents. Lee had been the center of a non-stop tag team assault from the quartet of turtles Gai summoned that morning, while Rikou and Naruto had continued their water walking exercise after a single summoning attempt, and Naruto went back to summoning after their short lunch break. He still hadn't gotten a frog more developed than the best attempt the day before, and most were more like tadpoles, but he persevered with the spirit of youth!

Nonetheless, even Gai was feeling a bit tired by that time, as he'd created a new set of gravity seals for himself weighing no less than six hundred and seventy five pounds each, a full fifty pounds heavier than the ones he'd been using, and he'd been doing his physical training right at the water's edge where the waves would irregularly pull at his ankles and the sand made footing more difficult, just for the added challenge.

Jiraya had shown up not long ago to check on their progress, but was most unyouthfully intoxicated. (Actually, he'd run out of money and gotten kicked out of the geisha parlor, then ended up at the town gates instead of the bank to get more ryo and decided to come out on a whim, to sober up before the more serious business he had lined up in the evening.)

Gomaru and Gin, on the other hand, had been taking it relatively easy, just getting the hang of how their new prizes operated, but the constant drain of chakra required even with the amplifying effect was beginning to tell on them, too.

It was in these decidedly sub-par conditions that the two groups ran into each other, Gin suddenly swooping around one of the headlands that protected their little bay, while Gomaru skidded along an instant later, a huge rooster tail spouting behind him as he zipped over the waves.

Their coveralls had been replaced, now - Gomaru's new outfit was similar in the body, but had an armored pauldron on each shoulder with a fat hollow spike on the left side, and a large metal armature ending in a heavy gauntlet and a mechanical claw that completely covered his left arm. There was also some kind of round metal fixture with a blue and white yin-yang insignia over the solar plexus. The suit appeared to have been made for a much more heavy-set man, criss-crossed belts at his chest, waist, and groin held the excess material out of the way, with similar bindings around the calves - about the only place it actually fit as intended was at the shoulders.

Gin's was almost like a drab, blue-grey version of a cheongsam, with the same sort of side closure and upright collar. It had only one sleeve, the right arm being bare save for the Hidden Snow grapple launcher strapped to that forearm. She had on a pair of tight, mid-thigh length shorts beneath it for modesty, and dark grey ninja sandals like her brother. A yin-yang was also prominenly featured on her suit, the centerpiece of a set of translucently thin purple wings supported by a thin metal framework like the spars of an umbrella. Both suits were strung with large, dark blue conduits around the seams and across the torso, interconnected at various points and leading back to the yin-yang equipped housings.

Banking and flipping in mid air, the former Snow kunoichi drew and tossed a good dozen kunai at the biggest group there, Lee and the turtles. Each trailed one of the little round bombs favored by Yuki-nin over the explosive tags common in more northerly countries, and as they hit they made an explosion that turned that entire end of the beach into a flaming hell, and blasted away the sand down to the damp under-layer packed with gravel and larger stones.

Almost as quick to react, Gomaru swerved in to shore, flipping forward off his chakra-channeling board and catching it as it folded into chopper form, uncurling and cutting a deep, bloody gash through Gai's back with the sharpened edge as the jounin's attention was grabbed by the explosive flower of death bursting around his look-alike student.

Fortunately for the boy taijutsu master his summoned sparring partners had been quick enough to form a defensive wall in front of him and deflect the blast with their shells, but worn out already from a whole day of battle they were forced to dispel as soon as the flames died down, leaving Lee in a cross guard amidst the dissipating smoke. The injured Gai, too, was surrounded in a cloud of smoke, the illusion of his kawarimi falling to reveal a bale of seaweed.

Worst off from the opening attacks was actually Jiraya, who'd been bowled off his unsteady feet by the force of the explosion and had the sheer bad luck to have his head land against one of the larger beach rocks. His spiky mane provided some cushioning, but for a few critical seconds his wits were scrambled, and Gomaru switched targets immediately.

"Fuuton: FUUGA!" Without hand seals at all, the nuke-nin channeled wind chakra into his chopper and swung, releasing it as an all but invisible spike of hardened air that blasted toward the fallen sennin. Then, suddenly, Lee was there, blocking the attack with a rock twice as large as a man's head clutched in one hand. "Kusogaki!" Gomaru cursed. He launched another two shots, then flexed the mechanical claw on his left arm and got ready to get a little closer.

Up in the air, Gin had circled inland to let the cliffs shield her from the shockwave and set up another sudden attack run over the area she'd seen the other two meddling brats, but no sooner did she clear the cliffs again than she was herself attacked, a hooking heel drop across the backs of her knees that tumbled her crazily across the sky. Righting herself at last in a hover out over the bay, Gin looked wildly around for the source. "How the hell? Way up here!"

A half-seen movement was her only warning, her head snapping around just in time to see the man in a green body suit like two of the kids wore uncurling from where he'd ricocheted off the cliff face some five hundred feet away. Then both feet hit her face, hard, and she was flying towards open ocean again while Gai was sent back to the cliffs.

With the help of his stone, Lee was able to parry the follow up wind attacks as well, though it cracked on the second and shattered away on the third. Naruto and Rikou arrived at his side while Gomaru was getting set for close combat, standing a bit to one side, near the first of the tidal pools. "Hey, Rikou," the blonde said seriously, eyeing their opponent with caution. "It's a little early, but... Do you think we should use 'that' jutsu?"

A quick glance over her shoulder showed the famous sennin groaning, and having trouble rolling to his feet... Not a sight to inspire confidence in a rookie on her first serious mission, she thought. "These guys are pretty strong... To protect our precious comrades... Let's get wild!"

Stepping closer together, the two linked elbows, then began sealing, even as Gomaru drew back his gauntlet-clad arm and ran towards them.

"Suiton!" Rikou announced first, her seal sequence being slightly longer. A tendril of water undulated out of the nearby pool and curled in front of the pair like a snake charmer's pet.

"Katon!" answered Naruto, then, in unison, "GATTAI! MURASU NO JUTSU!" Ending on a Tiger seal, he brought one hand to his lips, carefully swiping it through the waiting water as he did so, hauling the end along by the chakra-increased surface tension while sucking in as much air as he could. His gathered chakra was moved to the tip of his tongue as he breathed out, lips pursed to keep the stream tight as it bored through the water tendril.

Gomaru vanished into the jet of steam just before he could reach the genin trio, and an agonized scream from within it made them break the technique early with horrified shudders. Slowly the steam cleared again, ultimately dispersed by the gust when Gin swooped down from the sky. Cleared air revealed the Snow kunoichi at the water's edge, bent over her brother who was bathing his reddened skin in the cold waves.

"It looks like you got lucky, brats," said Jiraya, finally recovered from his hard knock. A few seals and a surge of chakra cleared the alchohol from his system, then he sighed and continued, "that's one burden you won't have to pick up so soon." Then, more jauntily, "So, I'm a precious comrade already? And here I thought I wasn't going to like you guys!"

Landing from his acrobatic escapades, their jounin sensei immediately took up a Nice Guy pose and exclaimed, "Yes! Though sometimes expressed in suspicious ways, Jiraya-sama is FULL of the BOUNDLESS SPIRIT OF YOUTH! Your judgement today IS SOUND, my proud students!"

Naruto's mind had moved on to on something else, however - something he thought he'd seen just as the 'Murasu' struck home.  
>"Ne, Ero-sennin... There's something weird about that armor, isn't there?"<p>

Jiraya took his 'Sage Brings Wisdom From the Holy Moutain' pose and grunted affimatively, explaining, "That's the Snow Country's special tool, designed for ninja... It's called 'Chakra Armor.'"

"Chakra Armor?" repeated Lee, trying the words in his mouth.

"But it's more powerful than I remember," the sennin continued, shifting to 'Wise Jiraya Explains the Mystery.' "It's an armor that contains seals to increase the effect of the wearer's chakra, and strengthen their jutsu. It creates a wall of chakra around the body, and it seems they even nullify an attacking chakra and reflect it back."

Gai narrowed his eyes. "I thought as much. In a situation like that..."

"Yes, no matter what kind of ninjutsu or genjutsu you use, it's no good, and even taijutsu must overcome the barrier. It's a terrifying tool." Seeing their opponents again about to attack, Jiraya took up a real ready stance rather than a cool pose, he and Gai stepping forward so the genins' renewed defensive triangle (Lee and Naruto side by side in paired Gouken stances, Rikou a few steps back with her weighted cord already in motion) was behind them.

"Gai-sensei!" called Lee, "With that barrier, the way you attacked the flying one before just knocked her around, but if two of us strike from different directions..."

"Hmm," Gai considered, smoothing his moustache. "I'll allow it! Rikou, Naruto, support Jiraya-sama with ALL of your SHINING ENERGY! Lee, with me!" Lee came forward to a half-step behind his mentor, while Rikou and Naruto repositioned so that they were evenly spaced behind the sennin, this time with Naruto in the lead stance while Rikou recoiled her cord and took the partner stance he'd just been holding, both of their chakra levels too low for more ninjutsu after the day's training and that combination attack.

Gomaru didn't so much charge as flicker, suddenly appearing in a crouch just in front of the Toad Sage. Two jets of chakra smoke shot out of the back end of the metal gauntlet as he threw an uppercut with all the boosted strength of the chakra armor. Jiraya's hair grew and wrapped himself in a barrier of needle-sharp spines, but the force of the hit still knocked him into the air, and the defense barely pitted the metal claws through the armor's barrier.

Planning to snag the sennin while he was knocked off guard, the nuke-nin snapped his right arm forward to fire his grapple... Then cursed, having forgotten that the grapple was built into the left arm of the suit, and he'd left his regular one behind since it wasn't tuned to work properly within and through the barrier field. Then the kids were on him, their taijutsu doing no damage but keeping him busy...

"You stinking brats, getting in my way again! Even with the barrier blocking its force, that steam cloud burned me... GIVE DEATH A TRY!" He swatted them away with sweeps of his arms, then, seeing Jiraya springing back to his feet, launched the left claw at the girl. Its rounded 'palm' turned out to be the front of a black, cannon ball like sphere connected by a tether cable, and he grabbed Rikou with the flying claw around one ankle.

Rearing back and then whipping the captive girl forward at the end of the cable cut off her surprised shriek and produced a sickening snap like some one popping all their knuckles at once, then he used her as a bludgeon to knock Jiraya down again. "As expected, the hair spines defense wasn't raised against such a weapon," he gloated. He whirled her around again and delivered a second blow, expertly aimed to crash her forehead against the same part of the sennin's skull that had already been abused agaist the rocks, then tossed her at the kid in orange, now trembling in horror. He managed to catch the girl, but sank to his knees, cradling her battered body... It was terrifyingly still and limp.

The chakra drain of the armor was really beginning to get to him... Gomaru decided to taunt the boy a little to buy a few seconds and recover. "She struck without hesitation, to protect her comrade ... Signs of a ninja worthy of respect... But... She also failed to account for the strength of her opponent, and that made her a fool, and now... a dead fool!"

Naruto's wide eyes were rimmed with tears, one hand automatically wiping at the blood that had trickled from one corner of Rikou's mouth, and from the split skin of her forehead... It was everywhere, and it just kept coming out! His mind spun like a panicked bird in a too-small cage. "You... In her springtime... You killed..."

"What's with that face?" the former Snow-nin scoffed. "Is this the first time a friend has died?"

She was so still in Naruto's arms, like a rag doll... Rikou was always moving, always laughing. She wasn't moving! "You..." She wasn't breathing! "You're..."

Gomaru channeled some chakra into his chopper again and set himself to renew the attack. "Little kids like you, running around and calling themselves ninja, without knowing how hard the world can be... I hate brats like that the most!"

"SHUT UP!" Gently, the blond laid his friend out on the beach with a cushion of sand to keep her head from lolling, as his terror became outrage. *I'll fill this first with the burning power of youth!* "Unforgivable..." His teeth ground and eyes stung as he snarled, and outrage became fury. Wiping away the tears that misted his vision just left smears of her blood, like a thin mask above the spreading whisker marks on his cheeks. *I said I'd strike instantly if an enemy appears!* "You snake... I'LL KILL YOU!" His hands clenched into claws as rage and adrenaline surrounded him with torrents of swirling red energy, the pressure of killing intent filling the cove like thick, boiling tar.

The Atsuikaze twins, Gai, and Lee all paused, shocked at the force of it, and even thoroughly concussed Jiraya moaned and shifted. For just an instant, the lashing tendrils of chakra seemed to form a snarling fox head to the startled nuke-nin facing the boy who'd become the center of the unexpected phenomenon.

*This feeling... What is this feeling? It's just like that time ... Can't move, can't breathe! ... No, must breathe; breath, thought, action, victory. Yes... I can do it this time... Breathe!*

Shaking off the feeling - to think that a child could create such a killing intent! - and the eerie way the boy's sparkling blue eyes had turned slitted and blood red, Gomaru raised his chopper and attacked.

Naruto's world was edged with red, and the miasma of blood filled his nose and mouth with molten copper. He flipped back under the glowing edge of the blade, then kicked up at his enemy's wrist, knocking the weapon loose, spinning away. He brought his feet over and curled into a crouch as the outlaw regained his balance then dodged aside as the heavy gauntlet came down like a pile driver.

The writhing red chakra seemed to tear at the armor's purplish barrier like a living, hating thing, and after only a moment's resistance he broke through, clawed fingers ripping deep into the metal of the gauntlet arm and shredding apart the mechanisms inside. Another kick knocked the big man back, staggering in the loose stones of the beach, and then Naruto was on him again, crushing fists that struck like hammer blows, as if his barrier wasn't even there.

And then, it was over. Gin blurred into motion, stooping like a hawk to grab her brother under the shoulders and flee, the berserk brat's last jumping claw-swipe claiming nothing but one of her sandals.

There was the crunch of feet landing on the stones behind him and Naruto spun, claws ready and a snarl on his lips, brow ridged in fury that his prey had escaped. Shocked at the look, Lee stiffened, then began to step forward with an extended hand, only to be pulled back by his mentor's guiding hand on one shoulder. "Sensei?" he questioned.

"Wait, Lee," the jounin cautioned, his stance ready but unthreatening. "We must see if-" The blonde's grimace smoothed away, and his eyes faded back to blue. With a hidden sigh of relief, Gai's tension eased, and he released his protege.

"Sensei... Rikou-chan... Rikou-chan was..." Suddenly, Naruto couldn't bear to look at his teacher, at the father of the girl who had died because he'd happened to attack the arm without armor. He couldn't bear the thought of those eyes looking at him with the cold hate he'd seen in so many others, not when this time he really deserved it.

"Have no fear, Naruto! Rikou will recover with youth and spirit," Lee reassured him. "Right, Gai-sensei? ... Gai-sensei...?" Glinting grin fading at the lack of the usual boisterous affirmations of youth power, Lee turned, to see the older man still in serious mode, leaning with one ear to the girl's chest. "Sensei, she... WILL be all right?"

"Her pulse is weak, but steady... Breathing seems unobstructed," the man muttered, face a mask of calm. Ever so carefully he slipped his fingers under his little girl's neck and lightly brushed the vertebrae. "The spine seems intact..." Looking over his shoulder, he called out, "Naruto! You did well to keep her head straight, even with her neck unbroken immobilizing it is best after such an attack." The orange-jacketed boy had jumped and flinched at first, then relaxed from his bow-string tension. Sitting back on his haunches, Gai instructed, "Boys, bring over a pair of stones and set them on both sides of her head with a cushion of sand while I check on Jiraya-sama as well. Not too big."

Then he stood, and that stoic mask was allowed to crack, becoming a smile no less shining if slightly smaller than usual. "Yes, Lee, Naruto, with the unbounded energy of youth, I am sure Rikou will make a full recovery!"

Gai was no medic-nin, but was possessed of enough in the way of battlefield medical skill to quickly knock together a solid stretcher - actually, what he did was knock *down* a largish tree, then split it at the widest point into a rough board and removed the splinters with a handful of rough-edged rocks. Clean bandages were tied around the various cuts and contusions, then Lee's spare athletic bandages got put to use to tie Rikou securely on, Naruto's jacket wadded on either side of her head under the strap to keep it straight.

Jiraya had awakened again but was too unsteady to walk on his own, so with Gai to support him around the shoulders and the two boys to carry their team mate level the group made their way back to Kirika. Rather than the city's hospital, an obvious target if their enemies tried to seek them out while injured, they returned to the hotel, where Jiraya sent a messenger to bring a woman he knew that was well versed in the healer's art.

Given the fancy kimono and face paint she showed up in it was probable she was knowledgeable in certain other arts as well, but the medicines and ointments that came out of her highly decorative silk shoulder bag were just as effective as what might be found in a healer-nin's pack, and she realigned Rikou's spine with the sure hands of someone who does such things, if in less extreme cases, practically every day.

She'd gotten them all squared away, announced that Rikou would likely awaken some time the next day, and told them all sternly to rest and recover for a while, even Naruto.

"But nee-chan, look! My cuts are all healed already!"

"Even if you say that," she told him firmly.

"But I'm full of the POWER OF YOUTH! I can finish the day's training just fine!"

"If I have to come patch you up again due to over-exertion, you'll be full of the power of prune juice, and then I guarantee you'll be sitting down for a while." Cowed and a bit disgusted at the thought of such consequences, Naruto sat quickly. "Jiraya-sama, please remember to come by the Swallowtail Tea Room and pay your tab soon," she reminded, gathering up her bag, then the woman was gone.

Seated at the head of Rikou's futon, Gai brushed a bit of hair out of her face where it had been released from her usual tight bun, and said (relatively) softly, "Today's battle was harsh... Sometimes, youth is both sweet and sour."

"Eh, I'll admit, it wasn't my best moment, knocked out so easily..." Jiraya agreed ruefully, rubbing the very tender knot on the back of his skull. He frowned thoughtfully for a few seconds, then turned to where Naruto had settled on his own bedroll and was flipping a kunai over and over in his fingers. "So, boyo. You got that other power to appear, it seems."

The young blond shuddered, and stuffed the kunai back into his holster. "That power... It was like being covered in hot blood, and only wanting more... If that's my hidden strength, I don't want it! I'll train hard and get strong the normal way, and let it STAY hidden forever, 'tebayo."

Even Gai looked troubled, but remained silent, and Lee took his cue from that.

Jiraya gave Naruto a look of wisdom hard earned - the real thing, not his usual play-acting, and said seriously, "That power... is a terrible strength. And yet, you used it to defend a precious person ... That's the only way it should be used. Now, we just need to get it so you can pull it out in time to stop a fatal blow, instead of to avenge it!" He sighed. "I guess this means I have spend more time training with you guys in the day, instead of on research. There's still a few more days before the ship to Wave Country is due..."

"But... Is it really a good idea?" the boy wondered. "It was so..."

"It was probably worse because it was the first time. If we get you some more practice you should be able to control it better..." he trailed off a moment. *Considering the audience...* "...unless you'd rather just not go to the effort. It would be a lot of work, after all." *As expected, the prospect of a challenge perked the kid right up. Maito-style training... It must be feared!*

Returning to the business at hand, the sennin explained, "I had a meeting set up tonight to confirm my information, but it's too late for that now. Even so, I'm confident that I've located the headquarters of the Two Gees gang, and that it's still four days before the next ship bound for Wave Country is due, which is where the dock worker I talked to said he heard the boss say the things were bound to." Reminded of something, Jiraya rummaged around in the pile of equipment recovered from the battle and not yet sorted. With a satisfied grunt, he pulled out the folded chopper/hover board and tossed it lightly to Naruto.

"By the way runt, good work wrecking that guy's mechanical arm - the mission objective is to capture or destroy those armors, after all. You can have that, you captured it from the enemy in battle fair and square, and they're common enough in Snow country. It's the armor itself we're after. More importantly, like I said, there's only four days left before the ship comes. Tomorrow, we'll still need to recover, and the last day we should rest, plan, and get in position, so that only leaves two days to try to make that power appear as you need it. Gai, I mentioned it before, but I'll borrow him for a bit in this situation - it's just enough time for some all or nothing, do or die training!"

"KYAAAH! I told you before, like I told that nee-chan with the medicine and too much makeup, I'll be fine by tomorrow! I always am!" the boy protested, adding seriously, "It's because I'm overflowing with the power of youth, dattebayo."

Later that evening, after both boys had gone to sleep, Gai said softly, "Jiraya-sama... Are you certain of these actions? To draw out 'that' power... What about Sandaime-sama's law?"

"The power is within him, and it can become his greatest weapon - an ability no one can copy or match. That was Yondaime's hope, anyway... As for sensei's law... Applying it to Naruto, I never agreed with it. It's his body the seal is inscribed on."

"... As a jounin of Konoha, I must still attempt to enforce it..."

"Eh? Well, no one ever said you were lacking guts, Gai... Don't worry, I won't actually break it, but if the kid figures it out on his own, it's probably fine," the older man concluded.

continued in bart C


	4. TXY: Search for Gero Sennin 3 of 3

20111010 - chopped in thirds for FFn

Fic recommendation: The Ninja Who Lived by 88mph, FFn ID No. 7404024 HP/Naruto, with Quality. Even if it doesn't sound appealing, check out Ch4 for Gai's speech at the Memorial Stone - this is the Gai which all other Gais should be.

On to the final part of TXY: Search for Gero Sennin!

continued from part B

Only Jiraya was surprised the next morning when Naruto was fully healed and eager to go, as he'd said. Rikou was awake as well, but very sore, the strained and torn muscles in her neck and back so painful that she was only half aware through the haze of the strong medicines the geisha had left for her. Gai and Lee stayed to keep watch and company while their own injuries healed, while Jiraya made do with some willow bark tea before heading out to work with Naruto. It wasn't as if the Sennin had to do much himself for this instruction, after all.

He'd led the youngster back out near the seaside cliffs, to a peaceful meadow marred by a deep notch cut when the steady erosion of the waves and an earthquake-spawned fracture had crumbled away the bank of a lake that had once nestled here in the hilly spine of the peninsula. Only a small stream burbled through it now, far below, where for a few hours millions of gallons had poured in a spectacular torrent.

The first step had been to use up most of the boy's normal supply of chakra - summoning half a dozen more-or-less developed frogs had managed to take care of that in fairly short order. Actually calling up his hidden power intentionally had proven more of a sticking point, though Naruto was certainly willing to give it his all... if not for the constant trickle of 'that' energy filtering out of the seal on his stomach, Jiraya would have worried about the kid overdoing it and killing himself from chakra depletion.

"Fortunately, that's impossible for this kid," he mused to himself, seeing the boy pass out again as another tiny frogling appeared. "A human body... it's too small a container to hold 'that' whole power... most likely, the power is normally kept in check, to prevent bodily harm." Slinging one of the unconscious boy's arms over his shoulders he hauled him up, continuing with a somewhat wicked grin, "If heightened emotion or personal danger is the key to releasing 'that' chakra... I'll just have to teach his body to use that key. Forgive me, Yondaime," he finished quietly as he carried his temporary student toward the sound of the waves, feeling him already start to rouse and wiggle.

Arriving at the top of the cliffs, he dumped the boy off his shoulders to land in a jumble, puffing with relief since he hadn't thought to take off the training weights on each of Naruto's legs before picking him up.

"Eh? Ero-sennin... where's this now?" the blond asked fuzzily as he pushed himself back upright.

Ignoring the question, Jiraya sternly explained, "This level of control is difficult... it requires a lot of mental discipline. But, since you're the type who learns with your body, you'll have to figure it out for yourself."

Peering confusedly at the older man, Naruto numbly repeated, "For myself...?"

That evil grin was back. "Yup," the hermit replied, knocking him off balance with a flick to the forehead protector. "That is... if you don't want to die."

As the boy tumbled backwards into the gorge, Jiraya's forced mirth faded into a hard, serious line.

He'd been falling just a second ago, down sheer walls of crumbly chalk that would have no chance of supporting his weight even if he managed to get a chakra-charged hand or foot on them to cling with the tree climbing technique, the rocky bottom fast approaching, but now...

Naruto had found himself in some kind of deserted hallway, ankle deep in water. He picked a direction at random to explore, eventually finding a huge, barred gate that seemed to radiate an oppressive aura of anger and killing intent. A bit fearfully, he wondered, "What... what is this place?"

Suddenly, a baleful, glowing red eye streaked with yellow appeared in the darkness beyond, and hot breath redolent of blood and brimstone whooshed out as a grating, reverberating voice growled, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT, BRAT?"

"W-what... who are you? Where is this place!"

"IDIOT... HOW CAN I BE SEALED WITHIN SUCH AN *IDIOT!*" The eye came nearer, until the dim light filtering through the bars and glancing off the water gave glimpses of russet fur, a pointed snout, gleaming teeth... Naruto gathered his courage and pressed closer to the cage, trying to see the fantastic beast within, then yelped and flipped away as half a dozen bristling red tails lashed against the inside of the prison, straining to reach him through the grate. A rippling snarl echoed through the huge space and bounced between its dreary walls.

"Damn it!" the boy shouted, once more keeping a wary distance. "What the hell are you!"

"TWELVE YEARS... TWELVE YEARS IN THIS BORING HELL, TRAPPED IN YOUR IMAGINARY TERRAIN... TWELVE YEARS SINCE THAT BLOND INSECT SUMMONED THE GOD OF DEATH TO DO WHAT NO HUMAN COULD DO... TELL ME WHAT YOU *WANT* MONKEY, AND BE DONE WITH IT!"

"I want to know who the hell you are, you bastard!" Naruto shouted "What does that mean, 'imaginary terrain!'"

"WHO DO YOU *THINK* I AM! BUT, SINCE YOU SEEM *INCAPABLE* OF THOUGHT, I'LL PUT IT SIMPLY... GREATEST OF THE TAILED BEASTS, THE NINE-TAILS DEMON FOX! THIS IMAGINARY TERRAIN IS THE LANDSCAPE OF YOUR MIND, WHERE THAT BLOND FROG-LOVING MORTAL SEALED ME AND ALL MY POWER!"

"N-nine tails...? Inside me...!" He remembered the cold looks, the half-heard insults... The shouting mobs who would chase him and throw things if he tried to go to the festival that was on his birthday, the anniversary of the same day that the demon fox had been defeated by the Fourth Hokage. If it was inside him, inside his mind...

"Demon... they called me 'demon' sometimes..." he muttered, dazed. "Does this... am I... Am I just a human form for the Nine-Tails...?"

Another roar, at least three times as deafeningly load and dripping with rage. "YOU, A DEMON! INSOLENT FILTH! ARROGANT MORTAL WORM, YOU'RE NOT FIT TO WIPE THE *ASS* OF A KITSUNE!" The massive demon crashed into the bars of the cage, held shut by no more than a paper tag labeled 'seal' but as firm as if welded into an immutable whole. "FOR THE LAST TIME, WHAT DO YOU WANT! STATE YOUR BUSINESS AND BE *GONE,* WHELP!"

Suddenly, his mind cleared, and he drew himself up. Looking confidently up into that dread gaze he declared, "Whatever happened in the past... However I got to this point... I am Uzumaki Naruto, and this is MY springtime of youth! You bastard fox... if that second chakra is your power, then that's what I want, dattebayo! I'll use that energy and shine like a beacon of passionate fire!"

A deep, menacing growl rolled out of the darkness, like the rumble of thunder that threatens tornados and deadly hail, then suddenly it became a booming laugh. "IN SUCH A SITUATION... IF YOU DIE, I DIE AS WELL? AT LEAST YOU HAVE SOME GUTS... I LONG TO SEE THE WORLD CONSUMED IN FLAMES, SO TAKE IT, AND LIGHT YOUR BEACON OF FIRE!"

A flood of crimson seeped out through the bars, spreading tendrils through the water like eddies of ink that swept up into a waterspout and engulfed Naruto in swirling fury. He opened his mouth to scream...

...and he was falling again, chalk walls whipping past and a messy stop on the rocky streambed looming ever nearer. His body hummed with chakra, boiling in his blood. Quickly he nipped his thumb and raced through the seals for 'Kuchiyose,' shouting the skill's name and holding his hand out as if to ward off the fast-approaching ground, and then the cloud of chakra smoke filled his world.

On the cliff edge above, Jiraya's serious face melted into an honest grin - no trace of deviltry this time. "Good job, kid," he said quietly, as the clouds of mystical smoke began to clear. Though, when he recognised the frog the boy had summoned, he added, "...but I think you may have gone a bit too far... making the boss, Bunta, appear! Even I can't control HIM." Listening with half an ear and snickering as the kid shot his mouth off as usual and somehow wound up agreeing to be one of the toad oyabun's subordinates, the sennin summoned the contract scroll and laid it out where Gamabunta would see it once he climbed out of the gorge and put the kid down, then made himself scarce.

Though it had taken Naruto a couple of days to recover from the surge of the kyuubi's chakra through his inner coils, still stressed from the first time the day before, not to mention from Gamabunta's none too gentle handling while jumping out of the gorge, he was ready to go with the rest when the day came to attack the dockside headquarters of the Two Gees. They didn't make any special arrangements to keep the gang members from escaping - the two missing-nin working with them weren't likely to flee if they had the chakra armor on, and if they did not have it and chose not to fight all the better - the objective was solely to capture or destroy that armor; dealing with the criminals would be a benefit but more properly a job for the police force, once the Fire Daimyo got rid of the corruption Jiraya had uncovered running through the Kirika Guard anyway.

None of that was on Naruto's mind at the moment, however. He'd grown more and more quiet as the wierd vision he'd had while falling slowly came back to his mind, until he couldn't take it any more. Never one to dither over decisions, he looked up from the map Jiraya had laid out of the gang's warehouse building and said seriously, "Gai-sensei... That time on the beach, you knew about... that thing, didn't you? You thought it might have been escaping?"

Uncharacteristically flabbergasted, Gai gaped for a moment before replying, "I know... anyone who was ... there, at the beginning, knows... but it is forbidden to speak of it on penalty of death, by order of Sandaime-sama... he did not want you to have to face a life of hardship. That law... it has only been observed in the barest way, but it still stands. I will talk with you now that you also know, but your cute team mates, Lee and my daughter-"

Jiraya interrupted him with a hand on the shoulder, looking across the small table at the serious Naruto and his slightly bewildered looking team mates, the boy switching his concerned gaze back and forth between his mentor and his friend, the girl keeping her eyes on her father but pressed confortingly against the blond's arm. "Look at them," he said, softly. "Aren't you the one who says that the spirit of youth can overcome everything? They won't be scared off." Though still clueless about the subject everyone else was dancing around, Lee and Rikou nodded firmly at his words, and the older man continued, "Besides... that law, it's about Naruto, but it doesn't apply to him. Now that he's learned, he can tell anyone he wants."

Serious and solemn even beyond 'mission mode' Gai gave each of his students a long assessing glance - not the boisterous rival of Copy Ninja Kakashi, not the doting father, not the enthusiastic sensei, the still core of a man who'd faced battlefields, whose judgement of enemies and allies capabilities in body and mind meant the line between life and death. For just a moment, his presence was all but overwhelming to the three kids, like the warning snarl of a forest tiger. *This... is shinobi...?* they marveled.

Then, as quickly as it had come, the moment was broken as he flickered from his seat to behind them, and swept all three into a crushing embrace. "OH, MY CUTE STUDENTS!" he bellowed. "FORGIVE YOUR SENSEI, FOR EVEN I AM STILL SOMETIMES SURPRISED BY THE INCREDIBLE POWER OF THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH!"

From his position sitting opposite the touching yet still deeply disturbing scene, Jiraya grinned. *Heh... maybe this guy... he's not such a bad teacher for the boy after all. What would you think, Minato, Kushina?* He didn't have to wonder what Minato's stuck up clan would think, their opinion of and disagreement with the Maito and their attitudes was as legendary as it was long-standing, running back nearly a century before the founding of Konohagakure. *That just makes it even better,* he mused, grin widening into a toothy smile.

When the hugging and tears and exclamations of youth power had died down again, Naruto quickly summarized the cage he'd found within himself and the encounter with the kitsune imprisoned there. As predicted, his team mates stood by him with their support, and Jiraya smiled again at the strong bonds of friendship the boy had forged, and not a little attraction on the girl's part. He'd have to take the brat aside later and give him a little advice, since his old student wasn't around to do the job... maybe the girl too, give her some tips on how to catch the kid's eye. It wouldn't do to actually give away the game, of course - where would the fun in that be? - but just watching the two made him feel inspired.

Finally, they came back to the meat of the discussion. "Gai sensei... Like I told the fox, whatever happened in the past, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. But... Is Uzumaki Naruto a real person, or am I just a body made to contain the nine-tails' power? I've never had any parents.. did The Fourth just... make me somehow, to be part of the sealing?"

Jiraya did a spit take, spewing the mouthful of sake he'd just sipped across the map. Ignoring that, he yelled, "NO! Even if it was possible to just make a child like that... Never think that way about them!" Taking a deep breath, he explained, "Because your father was a powerful ninja of Konoha, he had many enemies... For this reason, he and his wife kept her pregnancy secret, though I knew about it since he was my old student. Heh, he named you for a character in one of my books!" the Toad Hermit announced proudly.

"When the kyuubi attacked... he died at that time, and I guess you were too young to remember since your mother followed just a couple years later. There's a few of his moves I guess I'll need to pass on to you sometime... but more importantly, you should never doubt that your parents loved you and wanted you, and the fox had nothing to do with it except attacking on the day you were born." He took a fresh sip of sake to calm himself, and organise his thoughts some more.

"Listen, kid... because of your father's enemies, in other countries and even inside the Leaf, combined with those idiots who couldn't look past the fox imprisoned inside you, the details about your parents are also classified by Sandaime's law. I think you should ask him to tell you now that you know the worst part, but even I won't break it." He smiled warmly at the boy who, if you looked at it the right way, was kind of like a grandson, or maybe a nephew to him. "When you find out... you'll be surprised, that's for sure! For now, though, we'd better get back to the business at hand." He looked a bit sadly down at the blurring lines of his painstakingly researched and drawn map.

Early the next morning, the five of them perched on the roof of a building at the shore end of the wharf with the Two Gee's warehouse at the end. The sky had begun to lighten but the sun was not yet up, and a cold breeze blew in off the sea as Jiraya peered out at the horizon with his spyglass. "Yes... there it is," he announced quietly. "A ship with the Wave Country flag and Gatou Group's pennant... they'll be coming in on the morning tide. The time to attack is now."

Since there wasn't any need to keep the attack secret, they dashed up the still mostly unoccupied wharf, knocking out those few workers and guards who were directly in the way. A single, spinning kick from Gai knocked the warehouse's huge rolling door off its rails and blasted it across the interior space, knocking down a few hapless thugs inside and skipping over them, then knocking down the door on the far side as well, leading out to the dock.

Regrouping atop a stack of crates on one side of the open central area, the five Konoha nin formed a defensive cluster while they quickly looked around to familiarise themselves with the environment and try to identify anyone giving orders. Quick strikes from the weights on Rikou's silk cord put down a couple of foremen who'd been trying to bring order to the sudden chaos, while the remaining toughs milled around or ran. Hearing the commotion, the boss, Noumu burst out of his office to the balcony at second floor level, livid at the disruption. "WHAT IN ALL THE HELLS IS GOING ON IN HERE!" he bellowed. "WHEN I FIND OUT WHO'S-" He cut himself off when he saw the invading party, crouched on their perch at about the same height a few dozen feet away. "GOMARU! GIN!" he called. "I thought I hired you to take care of these bastards! What are they doing here!"

The two Yukigakure missing nin appeared with a flicker, standing side by side on the narrow balcony railing in front of him as calmly as if it was an open street. "After the beating we gave them last time... anyone smart would have gone home!" Gin commented, her face twisted into a sneer.

"Keh," her brother snorted in agreement, "If they had any brains, they'd have left as soon as they saw this armor. But that just means, we get to play with them some more now!" Looking over the squad arrayed against him, Gomaru nodded at Rikou. "So, she lived after all... You should have taken that favor from heaven and left! Now, you're all just throwing away your lives!"

Not about to let anyone talk smack like that and get away with it, Naruto snapped back, "Hah! You talk big, but your stupid machine arm is gone, and we aren't tired from training all day this time!"

"This arm... Hahaha..." The broad shouldered nukenin laughed cruelly. "You did me a favor by getting rid of that arm! You see, the truth is, I'm a ninjutsu type, but this armor is for a taijutsu type... That arm just took away my ability to use seals. Too bad it was the only suit that fit!"

"A... Taijutsu type?" Lee repeated, giving the remaining outfit an assessing eye, before dismissing it as unworthy of his explosive springtime. It wasn't even green, and so loose even the man wearing it had to use extra straps to bind it out of his way. *Surely no real taijutsu expert would consider wearing such a thing!*

Oblivious to the bowl-cut boy's disparaging thoughts, Gomaru replied, "That's right... And Gin, whose ninjutsu/genjutsu type suit obstructed wearing her kodachi the usual way... is a kenjutsu type. Plus, that time, we were also tired out, from getting used to these suits all day!"

Looking far less confident, Rikou licked her suddenly dry lips. "Then..."

"That's right, the man smirked. "You could say, we had a double handicap on that day. But... I'm not a bad guy... If you run right now, I'll even give you a head start!"

"The power of the springtime of youth will melt your arrogant boasts away like ice in the sunlight," Gai declared heartily. "Faced with its explosive energy... you are the ones who should run, for we shall not!"

Scowling, Gomaru growled, "If that's how you want it... Fine! Give Shinigami my-"

"Shit, Gomaru! Will you stop talking and fight already!" his sister complained.

"Fine, fine..." he grumbled, before suggesting, "Just to start things off with a bang, how about we use 'that' jutsu?" Seeing her agreement, he looked back at Naruto and Rikou. "Heh, you brats taught even us one thing... Try this!" He linked elbows with Gin and both started doing hand seals. "Fuuton!"

"Katon!" the severe beauty chimed in, before finishing in unison, "Jigokuen Gatatsumaki!" A whirlwind of air had formed in front of the duo, and as Gin spewed a stream of fire into it the combined air chakra multiplied its power tenfold. A pair of white-hot dragons roared and shot across the intervening space, their claws, fangs, and sharp spinal ridges glowing with the translucent blue lethality of wind blades. The genin team had no time to react in the face of their onrushing doom, and the attack struck with a reverberating roar and a blast of terrible heat, balls of flame and semi-solid blades of air scattering as it crashed home in a huge coud of white smoke.

As the smoke cleared, it revealed a carapace of heavy, riveted steel armor, deeply scored and glowing orange with heat but intact. "YOSH! Good work, Kametate!" Gai congratulated the giant turtle, who settled onto all four legs. "You should cool yourself in the sea for now, however." The summoned creature looked up at his scarred shell and shifted his tail to avoid a rivulet of molten metal, then seeing that his job was done scraped through the frame once filled by the warehouse doors and hopped into the waves as instructed, the heated metal producing great gouts of steam as it boiled the sea water.

Seeing the destruction and numerous small fires wrought by the failed attack, the Two Gees boss rounded on his hirelings once more. "IDIOTS!" he yelled. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT MY MERCHANDISE, NOT DESTROY IT! Now get rid of those bastards, and if you can't control yourselves, then take the battle outside!"

A katana appeared at his throat, a faint lick of flame traveling down its edge and threatening to singe his skin. Noumu's rage-reddened face paled with remarkable swiftness in terror, as the former Snow kunoichi growled, "Just because you're paying us, don't think you have the right to be insulting. Trash like you... we'll take your orders as a client, but never think you're as good as even those shitty genin brats!"

Before he could say anything, to apologise or to complain at such rough treatment, she was gone again, an arc of fire trailing from her blade as Gin and her brother leapt to attack the Leaf-nin. It didn't do them much good, Gai slipped inside her reach and sent the kunoichi tumbling out the warehouse door with a kick that crushed one of the folded wings on her back, while Jiraya sidestepped Gomaru's slash with a chakra-powered, spinning fuuma shuriken and knocked him through the opposite doorway with a double palm thrust.

"We'll take care of those two, you brats clear out the thugs in here," the sennin ordered, just as their original plan had been. He and Gai dashed after their respective opponents.

Trusting in the ability of her father and their legendary comrade to handle the enemy jounin, Rikou formed the split Ram seal for 'Kirigakure no jutsu,' filling the warehouse with a light fog. The spreading fires made it swirl erratically and gave the scene a strange, shifting glow, but her reinforcing chakra prevented them from dispersing the effect. Naruto produced two dozen bunshin, a third of them transformed to look like each of his team mates, and set them to dashing around, making harmless but lethal-looking attacks on the gang members who hadn't already fled from the ninjutsu being thrown around. Those tasks taken care of, the trio criss-crossed through the room in formation, Lee in the lead to knock out the thugs as they came to them, Naruto and Rikou maintaining their jutsu and backing him up when neccessary, as well as slapping a bandage on here and there where wind blades from 'Jigokuen Gatatsumaki' had opened deep slashes in the unfortunate gang members.

They appeared like ghosts in that confused, eerie hell as Noumu tried to leave through a side door. "Not so fast, Oyabun-san," Lee scolded, "You should not leave before a party is finished!" A quick punch to the jaw and the crime boss was out cold like the rest of his gang, leaving the three genin to drag everyone outside before the building collapsed or the thickening, opium-laden smoke smothered them.

Outside on the dock, Jiraya had been trading minor ninjutsu with Gomaru, testing the limits of his reflexes and the shield of his chakra armor.

Crouched on a bollard, the former Snow-nin hurled the last of his fuuma shuriken, then followed them with a ninjutsu. "Fuuton: Fuuma mafuudan!"

Escaping with 'Kawarimi' the white-haired sennin switched places with the large coil of rope at his enemy's feet, a brilliant blue sphere of spinning chakra forming instantly in his hand as he thust an uppercut into Gomaru's solar plexus with a roared, "RASENGAN!" The shield absorbed the attack, of course, but it was stressed to its limit, and as the attack began to lose coherency it wrapped around the shield, tearing at it even more as it sent the man flying, tumbling through the sky until he arced over the warehouse.

On the far side of the building, Gai had activated a special technique of his own after being caught by a 'Zanka,' a broad slash of torn and melted silk exposing his lightly bleeding chest. His skin was ruddy and snaked with pulsing veins, and seemingly blank eyes glowed with pale greenish fire as he sliced through the air, bounding and rebounding from walls, posts, and pure chakra constructs as he smacked Gin around like a paddleball. The purple barrier of her shield was wavering and tattered-looking but still protected the woman from damage, though from her greenish complexion the constant whirling was taking its own toll on her inner ear.

Spotting her incoming partner the Handsome Green Beast sent her spinning up to meet him, and leapt after her to deliver a double flip kick as the two crashed together. A brilliant flash and the crackle of purple lightning filled the sky as the two shields overloaded each other, the blue and white yin-yang plugs on the armors' power supplies shattering as the seals within them were destroyed. The two missing-nin collapsed at last to the dock in a heap as Gai touched down, panting slightly and slouching as he tamed the furious energies he'd unleashed within his body.

He looked up to see Jiraya chivvying the three genin out towards him, the leader of the gang hoist on one shoulder while his cute students each hauled another thug behind them. They got clear just in time, as with a rumble and the crunch of breaking timber the roof of the now energetically burning warehouse fell in, tossing embers and and burning timbers after them.

Seeing the wharf start to catch fire also, Jiraya waved the others further back before performing a now very familiar series of seals and announcing, "Kuchyose: Gamakenshi!"

The grizzled, horse-sized frog in samurai armor he'd summoned at the first meeting with the Snow-nin appeared again, one forepaw casually gripping the handle of its katana. It looked around and complained, "Still no sake for me, eh Jiraya? And not even anyone to fight... What's the big idea, calling me when the fun's already over?"

"Hmm, well, that burning building, I want you to knock it into the sea," the sennin explained. "Next time I'll make sure to have some drinks ready and we can share some stories, old frog."

"Promises, promises," the summon grumped in his gravelly voice. "Youngsters today... Ah well. Tenno Kireite!" The frog drew its sword in a flashing iajutsu strike, sweeping it horizontally in front of himself and producing a wave of chakra that slashed through the deck of the wharf and on to cut through the pilings, dropping the whole warehouse and a large part of the dock beyond into the waters of the rising tide. Job done, he flicked his sword as if to clear it of blood and returned it to the scabbard, then puffed away with a cloud of chakra smoke.

"Well, I'll entrust this guy to you," Jiraya said, handing the still unconscious gang leader to a mostly recovered Gai. "I'm sure the ANBU Interrogation Squad will be interested in what he can tell them, along with... eh?" It seemed that the Atsuikaze twins had escaped during the excitement, their now useless armors lying discarded on the wharf to keep from weighing them down while they swam. "Well, I suppose they don't matter, as long as the mission objective was met," he concluded.

"Eh?" Naruto queried. "Ne, ne, Ero-sennin, aren't you coming back to Konoha with us?"

"No." Jiraya held a stern expression for a moment, then broke out in a light blush and a perverted grin as he giggled, "The Volcano Country's biggest yearly festival is in just one month! All those tanned Volcano girls, with their glossy auburn hair and the skimpy northern clothing style! Hehehehee!"

* * *

><p>(Would you like to know more?)<p>

* * *

><p>Naruto setting and characters created by Kishimoto Masashi<p>

For those not conversant in Imperial units of measure, an inch (in.) is about 2.5cm, a foot (ft.) is 30cm or so, a mile (mi.) is 1.6km, and 2.2 pounds (lb.) equal a kilogram. No, I don't know why pounds are abbreviated "lb" either.

Suiton: Mizukurinuku - water release: water+drilling

gorimuchuu - (n) totally at a loss; lose one's bearings; in a maze; in a fog; all at sea; up in the air; mystified; bewildered

Kunoichi Ninpo: (perfect hair) no Jutsu - quoth Nathan, "(I saw a Genin drinkin' a Pina Colada at Trader Vic's...) Koyonaigamigata no Jutsu. I think. (Awoooooo...)" A chakra hair-net, and so much more - Ino used a variation on it to trap Sakura in the canon Chuunin Exams.

Taimatsu - noun, (pine) torch, flambeau, torchlight. The peninsula belonging to Fire Country which extends to the south, across a gulf from the Wind coast and southwest of Water Country. Not yet named in canon, and some maps show the gulf as landmass - the one seen onscreen has it as water, and that's what I went with.

Gero San-nin - 'gero' (pronounced with a hard g) is one of the words for 'frog,' probably an onomatopoeia for croaking. Naruto calling Jiraya 'Ero-sennin' is a pun on that and his peeping, while 'sennin' is hermit/sage and 'san-nin' is 'three ninja.' Jiraya is the frog summoner of the Legendary Three, so it's actually a double pun.

Katon: Kaen - fire release: hot flame

Gai protecting his team's innocence - I don't know whether it's commendable or sad that he actually means that sincerely as he heads for the red light district. Probably commendable since he is a married man after all, and Keiunko has *no* complaints to make about his abundance of the passionate spirit of youth. None at *all.* She likes his tickly moustache, too.

Nuke-nin - pronounced "nook-eh-nin," often translated as "missing-nin." A ninja who has abandoned his or her village to become a criminal, usually living as bandits or mercenaries for those who are unwilling to deal with a hidden village or who are themselves criminals. Generally no one bothers to hunt them unless they are at least chuunin rank or have particularly valuable/dangerous bloodline abilities. Depending on the reason for deserting they may be able to be accepted in another hidden village if they can supply information or items valuable enough to offset the political tension.

Atsuikaze - "hot" plus "wind," as in, "one hot, one windbag." Gomaru and Gin are just names I picked off a list, wanting two G names to be hired by the Two Gees. Gomaru is probably indicative of being a fifth child, "go" plus the common male suffix "-maru," but I've no real idea what Gin might mean in Japanese. If she was from an english speaking setting, I'd figure it meant one or both of her parents had a cruel sense of humor.

(02-2010 note: Further research finds at least one possible translation of 'Gin' as 'Silver,' which I should have known given the Japanese G1TF Godmaster Ginrai/God Ginrai. D'oh.)

"two clouds of dust and a faint acrid odor" - yes, they literally did piss their pants. When they say "Legendary San-Nin" they aren't kidding, naughty children are told that if they're not good Orochimaru will get them, and people pray for Tsunade to come when there is a serious illness. (Or when business is bad at their gambling hall...) Jiraya's legends on that level are more centered around hot springs believed to grant fertility (and the number of desperate wives who come to receive his 'blessing' in hopes of finally having a child is sometimes surprising even to him), but ninja know about their martial exploits as well... and the only inaccuracy in what Gomaru told Noumu is that there was *one* survivor of Jiraya's rampage against the Stone. He'd taken another team of students after all of the Yondaime's batch had become chuunin, and the kids were wiped out when they unexpectedly met the Stone invasion force returning from a mission, Jiraya having taken a trailing position due to determined pursuit. He never talks about it and the reports were sealed at his insistence, but a scout who'd been on the far side of the encampment and had the sense to flee brought the story back to Iwagakure no sato.

Hiyoroi no Jutsu - "fire+armor skill" - forms a shell of flaming chakra around the user, making it painful to attack barehanded, useless to bind them with ropes or cloth, and provides a bit of a cushioning effect to reduce the impact of weapons. The chakra manipulation is only moderately difficult, high genin level, but it requires so much chakra to use for any length of time that it is normally considered a chuunin level technique at a minimum. Naruto, of course, has no problem with supplying mass quantities of chakra - generally quite the opposite, hence why the water walking training. This was written long before the appearance of Assuke's raiton version post-timeskip; as I recall the (j-release/scanslation manga) mission to rescue Gaara was just getting underway.

Gamakenshi - "frog+swordsman" - the samurai equivalent of a career master sergeant, he's a rough, tough old frog who speaks plainly, and is much of a kindred spirit to Jiraya. Does not appear in canon.

Noumu - (n) heavy fog; dense fog; thick fog; (P) - chosen simply because I didn't have a name, and the word list was open to fog and mist from where I was looking up things to be used as jutsu names.

Ninpo: Kuchiose no Jutsu - "Ninja+Magic: Summoning Skill"

Gamatachiko - frog+sword+girl - the coloration is my own invention, but this frog is seen crouching on Naruto's shoulders in one of the manga splash pages.

Gamakensei - frog+warrior monk - This guy is seen on one of the volume covers with Naruto perched on his back. He's about the same size but not the same as the frog that holds the summoning scroll. Yes, you're going to be seeing a lot of different summons.

Something-rashi Ka-something - The 'penmanship' in the manga chapter where Naruto actually signs the scroll is really poor, but the best previous attempts at deciphering it gave "Kayaku" between Jiraya's space and Naruto's. As the backstory was created before the revelation of Yondaime's canon name and wife, you'll just have to deal with it, barring adjustments with my co-conspirators. I'll likely keep the Mitarashi part at least anyway, because it has some small bearing on things later on. In a situation like that, Yondaime is Naruto's mother's brother, that is, his uncle, not his actual father. Anko is a cousin in one or another degree.

Namikaze Minato - as revealed in manga chapter 367, this is the canonical name of the Yondaime, who is confirmed as Naruto's father. His mother's name is revealed at the same time to be Uzumaki Kushina, a red-headed tomboy from the former country of whirlpools, but no image of her was shown.

Finalized plotting restored the Fourth as Naruto's father, but he's still not a Namikaze. Rather, the stick-in-the-mud Mitarashi elders disinherited him for dating a foregiegner even after becoming Hokage, just like they did to Anko when her sensei turned traitor and she ran off with him. Not that she realizes their relation any more than Naruto does, she's a second or third cousin and the closest family who'd even consider claiming him if they did know.

On the relatively quick success at summoning - The basics of Maito-style training is to do everything with your whole being, so the instruction to use all the chakra they can channel at once isn't exactly new to either of them. No one knows the basics like the fuzzy-brows, after all, and lack of that solid foundation was always Naruto's biggest weakness in the early manga. I've half decided to give Rikou a natural talent at summoning, actually, mainly limited by available chakra. If so, I'll add something somewhere about how Gai is proud of that, too, when his own training has yet to bear such fruit of precision except with the turtles he's worked with most often - otherwise, he gets random turtle X for whom the chakra used is about right.

As for how Rikou has enough chakra to pull off even a toddler summon creature - while not up to Rock Lee's level, she is equal to the usual run of Genin taijutsu specialist... and single-weapon specialist with her weighted cord... and support specialist with genjutsu and 'lightweight' ninjutsu. Of the three, she's the closest to a 'genius type' as such, able to gain knowledge quickly so her hard work can go to implementation - and since the usual limiting factor for maximum chakra is stamina, which comes from the strength of the body, that gives her a lot to work with. She could have graduated to genin years early but wanted to stay with friends at her age level, Gai didn't push because he cares more about ability than rank; the fires of youth must be built up with care lest they burn out too soon. Naruto's taijutsu is about as good but he has ninjutsu worthy of a mid-to-high level chuunin thanks to his literally superhuman chakra capacity making up for low-to-mid-genin level control to allow for using lots of powerful techniques, and mediocre performance otherwise put him in the 'middle of the road' team balance slot as far as Academy paperwork was concerned. Lee of course scored zeros in Ninjutsu and Genjutsu but aced Taijutsu, Tool Use, and Ninja Theory - no one teaches the basics like the Super-Fuzzy-Face - for an exactly eighty percent score, the minimum passing grade, tying him for last place among graduates with one of the kunoichi Neji got teamed with... Except that she had across-the-board 80s, and that only after taking extra credit in everything. All of which shows just how broken the system of 'balancing' the teams based on Academy scores is, since Team Six (AKA Team Explosive Youth) is somewhere between a steamroller and a 500lb gorilla as genin squads go - all they lack is experience or they could have skipped directly to chuunin. The other "Dead Last" is no pushover either - just saying her name should be enough to give the idea: Tsukino Usagi.

Kamehorai - turtle+kettle - she's a little girl turtle, who likes to play tea party and help provide the tea. The fact that this means she can also put the water in cup ramen makes her one step from the holy grail of ninjutsu for Naruto... that of course being "produce-Ichiraku-ramen-instantly-anywhere no jutsu"

Suiton/Katon Gattai: Murasu no jutsu - Water release/Fire release Combine: Cook-with-steam skill - conventional wisdom holds that fire and water jutsu will cancel out, but that can't hope to succeed against the unconventional wisdom of the springtime of youth! It makes a jet of high-pressure superheated steam which can cut through non-chakra-reinforced materials and is extremely painful even if an opponent has enough of a body reinforcement to survive. Gai has declared it a kinjutsu, like the Lotus techniques, only to be used in direct defense of a precious person or their ninja ideals. They readily agreed after he procured a body-simulating medic-nin training dummy for them to use as a target, and the "flesh" was cooked and seared away from the bones like an overdone turkey. Still, they are ninja, and at some point they will need to kill. Having a way to do so almost instantly and produce a shocking psychological effect on enemies that weren't directly targeted can only be useful, and in the abstract it's still 'cool' to them. It is, after all, still their first mission aside from what would better be called getting paid to run errands, and they're only eleven and twelve years old.

Maito-ojisan's four turtle students - that would be Kameleo, Kamemikey, Kamedon, and Kameraff... and no, I won't actually use them on camera... unless the power of youth gets too compelling. Probably. At least not before Rikou has enough oomph to summon them herself, or maybe when Maito-ojisan appears; they and Haruno-ojisan could fill out a shogi tournement bracket with Shikamaru and Asuma.

Chopper form for the snow fatass's chakra channeling board - yes, I know that the edges were blunt in the movie, and it only got used on snow. I don't care. With wind-nature chakra a physical edge is irrelevant, even without it's entirely logical for the edge to be sharpened given the way it folds, and as for working on water if chakra can let ninja walk on it, why not? In point of fact, I've made it into a hoverboard - just pump some chakra in there and it stays 3-6 inches above the surface, depending on solidity. Naruto is going to totally love it, and it lets him start playing with his actual elemental affinity. As for calling it a 'chopper' I'm kind of at a loss for a better name - it's not really a sword, or even as much of a kitchen cleaver shape as Zabusa's blade. It's got some similarities to a Klingon bat'leth, but they don't have Star Trek in Naruto-world, and it's usually wielded by a single grip even if it does have two, which bat'leth are not.

Futon: Fuuga - wind release: wind fang

Kusogaki - liberally, "You damn brat!" more literally "Shitty imp!"

Jiraya being FULL of the Spirit of Youth - even most people who think that Spirit of Youth blather is pure bullshit would still agree with Gai on that one.

Jiraya's doctor friend - Yup, she's a geisha. Very skilled at the art of straightening out a spine pulled from a bad lift, or carrying heavy loads all the working day of a tradesman's busy life, not to mention with the preparation of any number of soothing ointments and creams for dealing with minor cuts and abrasions, and medicines to prevent or treat disease. Quite likely to be called on to act as a midwife from time to time as well. Best of all, from the ninja point of view, is that they're used to keeping secrets and Jiraya is sure to know the ones who can actually be trusted to do so, at least as long as they're still getting paid. And the ones who can't. And the ones who don't know all that other stuff, but are very impressed by tales of derring-do. And... Yeah.

On neck injuries and treatment - I know some first aid but I'm far from being a licensed First Responder let alone a doctor. This is a fictional story, don't try any such thing yourself, because at least some of it is almost certainly wrong, and if you did you'd probably paralyse or kill the victim. Once again: fiction. As in, *not real.* At the same time, I didn't want to just have Rikou shake it off and hop back on her feet, because injuries hurt, and without a handy captive demon fox to make them regenerate they don't just go away.

I just have to say... writing the encounter with the nine-tails was hard, for a number of reasons. I wanted to stay loosely in the vicinity of the way the canon encounter went, figuring that the greater support Naruto has known in this version would mostly make up for not knowing about it ahead of time - though he still needed some urgent discussions of it with Gai and Jiraya - but that lack of knowledge required the fox to be a little more chatty. At the same time, I didn't want a Nine-Pages Demon of Exposition, nor would the kyuubi care what meaningless title one human might be given by other humans, and I definately didn't want to do one of those fanon moments where Naruto shows a bit of spine and the demon suddenly becomes a slightly prickly lap-dog. Then too, it was difficult to get the youth power vibe that infuses Gai's disciples... I was stuck on this for a long time (just look at the freshness dates at the top of the file!) until I realised that in the face of such a massive mind-blower Naruto himself might lose sight of the springtime for a bit... which made the turn over obvious, a matter of him regaining his way and stating it loud and clear. And now, I'm kicking myself over how obvious that should have been, but if the game was easy anybody could play, ne?

capitalization and the kyuubi - simply put, I don't, because 'kyuubi' is just 'nine-tails;' we've never been told the kyuubi's name like we have with Shuukaku, the 'ichibi,' or 'one-tail.' I feel no pressing need to make one up myself since if anything I intend to have Naruto rely even less on the demon's power aside from the secondary effects (healing and his huge native chakra reserve), but if a canon name is ever revealed I won't reject it out of hand either.

Fuuton/Katon Gattai: Jigokuen Gatatsumaki! - wind/fire combo: hell+fire twin+dragon+spiral - perfomed in the same fashion as 'Murasu' but made from elements that reinforce instead of fighting each other, 'Jigokuen Gatatsumaki' produces a pair of spinning dragons above the strength of even other dragon-style, top level elemental attacks, which can be individually maneuvered and targeted as desired. Since Gomaru and Gin are natural Air and Fire users, it is especially potent in their hands.

Kametate - turtle+shield

Bollard - a heavy fixture found on docks, used to tie up the ships visiting them instead of using an achor as they would in shallow open water.

Fuuma mafuudan - windmill evil wind bullet

Solar plexus - a nerve cluster located a couple inches below the sternum, hitting some one there HURTS and makes their lungs spasm, disrupting their breathing for a few seconds.

Zanka no jutsu - cutting fire skill

Tenno Kireite - of heaven (the) cutter

Jiraya's hair spines defense is called "Hari Jizou" and is classed ninpo - likely, 'Koyonaigamigata' is at least tangentially related to it.

Omake: Tales from the cutting room floor:

"This fist of mine... it burns with an explosive power! It tells me to defeat you! YOUTHFUL SPRINGTIME!"

-=- O_O .o(...) -=-

Naruto had found himself in some kind of deserted hallway, ankle deep in water. He picked a direction at random to explore, eventually finding a huge barred gate that seemed to radiate an oppressive aura of anger and killing intent. A bit fearfully, he wondered, "What... what is this place?"

Suddenly, a baleful, glowing red eye streaked with yellow appeared in the darkness beyond, and hot breath redolent of blood and brimstone whooshed out as a grating, reverberating voice growled, "WHAZZZUUUP?"

END OF LINE


	5. Ino Gaiden: Mystery Haruno Theatre 3000

txy03_ino_gaiden

2007-12-13 - initial file created, notes transferred from DWMB saves  
>2077-12-25 - finished!<p>

Kami, was she thirsty! It had taken Ino two hours to compose the stupid review essay Iruka-sensei wanted on the theory and applications of bunshin and kawarimi before he taught them to combine the two so the object they swapped with would keep their appearance until it was hit, between the time spent actually coming up with what to write, and then copying it neatly onto a scroll to turn in. Massaging her wrist, the somewhat-less-chipper-than-usual blonde slipped out of the study and headed to the kitchen for a drink, pausing at the head of the stairs as she heard her parents' voices in the family room below.

"-omiai? Honestly, she's only eleven years old! What is he thinking?" her mother complained. Ino's eye twitched as she realized what they were talking about. Unless they meant arranging something with Sasuke-kun, there was gonna be hell to pay!

Her father sounded nearly as exasperated as his wife, replying, "I thought the old coot gave in too easily about teaching them, and now I know why. Grandmother and Uncle Inoki are against forcing the issue, but even they would like to see such strong talent reinforcing the bloodline." He sighed, and from the soft sound of their movements, Ino guessed he'd pulled Mother into a hug. "She's the only one available for it, since Inoko married that Asagiri boy, and my sister only has sons. Ino, come downstairs."

Flushing slightly and wondering what had given her away - and when she'd get to learn it! - the youngest Yamanaka complied, picking up energy as she shook off embarrassment and remembered to be angry about getting fixed up with someone that didn't sound like Sasuke-kun at all. At least, she didn't think her father had ever taught the handsome Uchiha heir.

Her father cut her off before she could give voice to her displeasure, however. "Ino-chan, I've invited two of my old genin team over for dinner tomorrow so you can meet them - just a normal introduction, not an omiai - as a matter of keeping peace in the clan. You WILL be polite and gracious, understood?"

"But daddy!"

"Do you understand?" he insisted.

"All riiiight..." she reluctantly agreed, thinking, *but just because I have to be polite doesn't mean I have to like them, or make them like me!*

Her father's skeptical look warned that he probably understood what she'd left unsaid all too well, but he let it slide for now. "The boys are twins, Haruno Jinrei and Kenshiro, and instead of the normal Haruno bloodline they are very strongly psychic."

"What! Forehead girl has a special bloodline? Maybe a bloodline for keeping her nose in musty old scrolls without choking to death, or signal flashes reflecting the sunlight off her oversized expanse of -" She cut herself off, staring angrily at the floor when her father cleared his throat threateningly.

"The Haruno bloodline is one of the very oldest, like our own, well established even before the first of the great ninja wars when shinobi began to change from specialists in infiltration and espionage to front line combatants." he explained. "Their ability is especially suited for use by deep cover operatives, but more combat oriented uses have been developed as times changed, also. For one thing, their second self is a perfect defense against mind-controlling jutsu, including many of our own family jutsu. Those techniques take considerable training to achieve, however, so it's no surprise if the only thing your friend has shown is unusually good chakra control."

"The twins are different, however, as I said. Even without knowing any of our jutsu, their psychic ability would be very valuable to keep the Yamanaka bloodline strong, since abilities like our own are so rare outside the clan, and we are too small to marry within it the way the Hyuuga often do, and the Uchiha did." Inoshi's face softened, as did his tone, knowing that if he was too authoritarian his strong-willed daughter would disobey just to be contrary. "I'm not asking you to fall head over heels at first sight, or to do anything particularly romantic while the boys are half again your age. All I want is for you to give being friends with them a chance, and let anything more develop as it may."

It took a bit more grumbling on Ino's part, soothing on her father's, and a few sharp words about manners from her mother before the conversation wound down, but Ino already knew she'd been licked. She was still dying of thirst, for that matter, and too much talking might damage her poor parched throat.

(Roll titles!)

Legend of Explosive Youth Part Three

Ino Gaiden: It's Just An Intro, I Should Really Just Relax

Dinner the next evening had come and gone without major difficulty, though Ino had been a bit weirded out by the twins' tendency to switch off in mid-sentence when one or the other needed to take a breath or a bite of food. Then her parents had shooed the three of them into the family room while the adults cleaned up, and an awkward silence had fallen.

Her clan's marriage-minded maneuverings were absolutely the LAST thing she wanted to talk about, especially if no one had told the boys - Please, by all the kami, let no one have mentioned any such thing! - but absolutely nothing else was coming to mind. Worse, she could feel a light blush forming as she continued to look them over, the open vests and skin tight suits doing little to hide the fit bodies of active ninja. *SASUKE-KUN, Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun...* she chanted in her head, trying to purge any such thoughts, then admitted, *...wears that bulky jacket all the time, so I have no idea if he's really this hot under it.* She sighed, and felt the strong urge to start fiddling with her hands like that Hyuuga girl was always doing.

Taking pity on her, the twins drew a breath, then one said, "Ino-san, your father told you a bit about us, right?" At her hesitant nod, the one on the left continued, "He said he'd told you that Haruno usually have a second self, but that we're psychic, like the Yamanaka, instead. That's -"

"- not quite accurate," right-side-red continued. "We've kept it a secret so far, but your family probably wants you to think about dating one of us, since psychics are so uncommon."

Damn! They'd figured it out, or someone had told them and they were trying to be politic. The blonde girl could feel her cheeks burn, but stubbornly brought her eyes up to meet the green orbs of... arg, which one was which again? She took a guess and said, "Well, yeah, Kenshiro-san. Mostly the elders, really."

The pink-haired boys smiled in eerie unison, before requesting, "What we have to say is a secret even from our own family, but since you're now involved, we think you should know. Will you let us use a psychic contact so no one can listen in?"

Still upset with herself and her family, Ino thought for only a second - long enough to realize that in a telepathic link she could tell them off without her parents hearing - and agreed. The two boys shuffled closer together on their cushions, then interlinked their near arms to each form half of the familiar triangular hand seal used for Shintenshin, leaning their heads together to both look through it at her. There was the familiar pull of contact, then the three of them were in her mental space. Ino smirked slightly, seeing that their mental images apparently hadn't adjusted to their recent promotions, since despite the proudly worn vests on their real bodies they had only the bodysuits in here, while her own mental self had a perfect replica of the outfit she'd chosen for the day.

The bodysuits weren't even accurate, she realized - one had a red pattern on both sides, and the other was inverted, mostly red with black arms. Also, their facial expressions had lost that eerie unison, the one on the left wearing a confident smirk while his twin smiled warmly. Left folded his black-sleeved arms and - was that pervert openly checking her out! - while right introduced them and explained, "I'm Kenshiro, he's Jinrei... but the truth is, we're not really two Haruno with a strange blip in the bloodline. Actually, we're one normal Haruno who happens to have two bodies. Jinrei would have been Inner Kenshiro, and most of the time I run them both. When we're in combat, separated, or in some other situation where full attention is needed for each body, that's the only time he really takes over. Since my parents named the first body born Kenshiro, Jinrei decided to use the extra name."

"... And here I thought the Aburame were freaky, what kind of stupid is having two minds and two bodies, and still only having one mind control both?" she sniped.

"Gosh, I dunno," Jinrei snapped right back. "What kind of stupid is only having one of each, then sending your mind to take over another body when all you can do is let your own lie around helpless? Even your grandfather can't do more than use a guard stance while controlling someone with Shintenshin, and the higher-level Yamanaka techniques don't allow as much control. Two heads are better than one, and I'm twice as good as that!"

"Oi, be polite when there's a guest, me," Kenshiro scolded, then turned to the fuming girl. "Jinrei doesn't deal with people much, so he's a bit brash, and unused to referring to us in the plural - even so, it's a fact that because of our unusual situation, we can use the Shintenshin to excellent effect, though that has been mostly hidden as well... If we hadn't, you probably would have been simply told you would be marrying one of us."

"WHAT! Like hell! When I marry anyone, it's going to be Sasuke-kun, you stuck-up pinkies!" the young Yamanaka shouted. "Besides, Dad would never let the elders do something like that to me!"

Jinrei snarked, "So says every girl in his class... Including Little Sis."

Kenshiro bapped his other self on the forehead. "Ino-san, let me tell you about one of our recent missions, and then perhaps you'll see what we mean." He waved a hand, and suddenly they were standing by a row of seats in a movie theater... Except, it didn't have a normal screen, instead it was like a giant spy-seal viewer. "You know what this is?" he asked.

"Yes, of course," the blonde replied, since they were covered briefly under the study of ninja tools, "but I've never heard of one this big before..." She stepped closer and ran a hand over the surface. "So, you can make clear, solid mental constructs. Big deal, so can any genjutsu user!"

"That's not the big deal," Kenshiro said. "Take a seat with us, and we'll show you as well as telling." Ino frowned at the twins, but perched daintily in a seat near the middle of the row. They sat in the next two seats, Kenshiro beside the girl with Jinrei to his left.

A moment later, Jinrei passed two tubs of popcorn to his other self, who handed one on to the girl. "What?" the Inner Haruno said defensively. "It's traditional for our mission reviews. Don't worry, it's just another construct so it won't make your ass fatter. Not like you couldn't use a little both front and back any - Ow!" He was cut off by Kenshiro's knuckles digging into the top of his head, amid a shower of popcorn from Ino. "Ow! Ow! Okay, fine, her ass is perfect, stop it!" Rubbing his head as his other self finally let up, the red-clad twin griped quietly, "Bad enough fighting with myself, why'd the crazy chick have to go throwing popcorn all over? Now my mind's all dirty..."

Vein bulging and shaking a fist, Ino roared, "YOUR MIND WAS DIRTY ALL ON ITS OWN, YOU PERVERT! And damn right my behind is perfect. Way too good for the likes of you, so keep your eyes to yourself, jerk!" she huffed, and turned up her nose. After a few seconds to calm down, she turned to Kenshiro (utterly ignoring his immature twin giving her the red-eye in the next seat... Grrr...) and forced a sweet smile. "If there's a point here, can we get back to it? Something to do with the unrealistically huge viewer?"

Digging an elbow into Jinrei's ribs surreptitiously, he nodded agreeably and replied, "Actually, that was the object of the mission - a fuinjutsu master in Lightning Country had discovered a way to make a stable viewing matrix this big, and we were supposed to find out how. Since he's a civilian and lives well away from Hidden Cloud it was only considered a B-rank mission, and the two of me went without further back up. Because of that, we didn't have to hide our abilities this time."

The screen before them flickered to life, slightly grainy and in faded colors but overall better than most of the smaller ones she'd seen. It showed the two Haruno hiking into a mid-size town with typical Lightning architecture. They were in civilian clothes, carrying the large fur bundles of trappers, and had dyed their distinctive hair two unremarkable shades of brown.

As they were stopped by the gate guards and hassled until a sufficient bribe was paid, Jinrei said sarcastically, "Ah, the action-packed life of a ninja. New experiences abound at every turn!"

Seeing Ino's questioning look, Kenshiro whispered, "Another tradition... Most missions are actually pretty dull without the tension of doing it firsthand, so mocking our mistakes and the people we meet helps keep it lively."

Sure enough, after the two had sold their furs and checked into an inn, Kenshiro zinged his remembered self as one body folded onto a cushion in front of a low desk, pulling out some papers and writing tools from his much-smaller pack. "Behold my ultimate instant-kill technique! Accounting no Jutsu!" Despite herself, Ino couldn't help but grin along with him.

"The viewers have started to become popular among the wealthy and upper middle class of Lightning Country," he explained. "Because of the frequent bad weather, any free time is better to spend indoors. Their seal-crafters have taken advantage by making eye-seal cameras that link to dozens or even hundreds of viewers at once, and then have actors, puppeteers, jugglers, and so on perform in front of the camera. Sometimes, mercenaries or low-level ninja are hired to have exhibition matches. Of course, these viewers can also replay performances captured by a recording seal."

Ino nodded attentively, ignoring the twin on the big viewer for now, who'd left the inn and his studious double again and headed for the market district.

"Some Fire Country nobles have begun to get interested in them too, but the seals can't stay connected over so much distance. The viewers remain expensive, also," he continued, "so the people who have less money can't afford them. And too, the eye-seal cameras linked to so many are much bigger than usual, so there's not a lot of room for a big audience around the stage for the performers, to pay for their ongoing acts."

"Recently, a sealing master named Kaden came up with a way to solve both problems at once. He made a huge viewer like this one, and put it in place of the screen at a movie theater. People who can't afford a viewer of their own pay admission just like at a regular movie and watch the live performance on the screen like we are now. Jealousy towards the nobles is reduced, and better performers can be paid. It's an effective result."

"The mission was requested by a Fire Country noble, who wanted to set up a similar arrangement here before the Lightning merchant groups backing the plan could establish themselves enough to expand. Essentially, we needed to either learn to copy the sealing method perfectly, or capture someone who was able to perform it and bring him back."

"Pish, easy!" Jinrei interjected, before throwing some popcorn at the screen and shouting, "Hey! Stupid old fart, watch where you're driving that cart! You almost ran me over!"

The Kenshiro on the screen had jumped easily out of the way, of course, and had then crossed the busy market street to enter an upscale shop. The attendant was dealing with another customer already, so he inspected the eye-seal cameras that were on display, then ...

Ino had to laugh as he blatantly made the triangle seal for Shintenshin and peered around the shop through it as if looking through a camera. She recognized the slight shudder as the clerk got possessed, but the Haruno who'd used the technique simply shrugged and started to watch a couple of Cloud chuunin dueling on one of the shelved viewers.

A quick flash of the twin still at the inn showed him smiling as if remembering something, prompting another sarcastic comment from Jinrei. "Oh yeah, when they hear about the invincible Accounting no Jutsu back in Konoha, the babes are gonna be all over me... Mmm, Kurenai-sempai!"

"Hey!" Ino scolded, on behalf of females everywhere. "Will you knock it off with the perverted stuff, already?"

Back at the shop, the clerk finished the other sale and apologized for the wait. Memory-Kenshiro inquired after a long-ranged, durable viewer that would fit in a pack, to which the clerk explained he'd have to speak with the craftsmen in the back room. The reason for maintaining the deception was obvious, of course - they were standing in a shop that sold cameras and screens, after all. The view followed as he stepped into a large workshop and looked unobtrusively around, smiling weakly at a bored-looking Cloud chuunin nearby, who sneered and went back to standing around and watching Kenshiro in the shop standing around and watching Cloud chuunin fighting on a stage somewhere.

"Yes, the thrilling shinobi lifestyle!" Kenshiro repeated. "Go to exciting places! Meet exiting people! Kill them in exciting ways!" Contrary to his words, the possessed clerk did not jump into an orgy of bloody violence, instead walking calmly past the table where another assistant was getting ready to put a small viewer device into an ornate gilded frame. He made his way to the back of the shop to talk to a man putting the final marks on a seal pattern that covered a plastered wooden panel that Ino guessed would barely fit through the average doorway.

They talked for a few minutes, then Kaden called over to his shop assistant, who laid aside the frame he been about to attach and instead went and got a much plainer one. The possessed clerk turned back to the master and... Shintenshin again! But he was still acting posessed... Kaden told them he was going out for a bit, and to bring out the trapper's viewer as soon as it was ready, then left through a back door. The clerk went back out front, and chatted about the duel on the viewer until the device was ready and the sale made, only showing the telltale disorientation of being released as Kenshiro bade him goodbye and left, looking down at the stack of ryo in his hand with a slightly dazed expression.

"I... There's no way!" Ino protested, overcoming her shock at last. "Okay, two minds, lots of practice, you can keep multiple bodies going at once. But Shintenshin again from a possessed person!" The very thought was mindboggling... "To be able to jump hosts like that, it's the ultimate perfected form of the technique! The clan has been working to create a jutsu like that for *generations!*"

Suddenly, the assertion that if they'd shown their skills before Ino would have had an arranged marriage set up already wasn't so farfetched - hell, there was precedent, she might have been married to them outright on her tenth birthday! She stared at the pair with awe, shock, and not a little fear, arms crossing of their own volition to guard her chest. The Kenshiros on the screen were fitting the still-possessed Kaden with a disguise so he could simply leave town with them, but her attention was riveted on the two boys beside her.

Kenshiro smiled reassuringly and patted her knee, while even Jinrei looked apologetic. "You don't need such a look," he told her, peering around his more social self, "I'm not a total asshole. The Haruno clan has even more reason to be aware of psychology than you Yamanaka, so we know better than to try to force this kind of shit."

"You don't have to worry about getting blackmailed, Ino-san," Kenshiro said, picking up from his other self, "Even if the elders find out somehow and try to railroad things, we won't cooperate unless we all decide it's what we want. In the mean time, though, we can help you practice keeping your body active while possessing someone. We have a lot more chakra to hold the jutsu longer, and practical experience we can pass along since we know you'll keep the secret."

Well now. That was an entirely different kind of proposal, and one a little more to her liking... Sasuke-kun may be the only boy for Ino, but training her special family technique like that! *And,* a little devil in her own mind pointed out, *even if they are forehead-girl's brothers, they aren't too hard on the eyes. Bonus!*

* * *

><p>(Would you like to know more?)<p>

* * *

><p>Naruto setting and characters created by Kishimoto Masashi. Jinrei, Kenshiro and Kaden created by ClassicDrogn<p>

Jinrei - silver(?)+spirit

Kenshiro - sword+white

Shintenshin - ?

Married at ten - while not recently, arranged marriages between members of ancient clans like theirs have been recorded as finalized as young as two years of age, though that subsequently led to a war between the Yamanaka and a no longer existing clan when the toddler died of a childhood disease and no replacement was offered. After that, the limit of ten years was enacted to attempt to guard against a repeat.

Kaden - electric charge

Carry over from last episode: Quoth reviewer Ranma Hibiki, "On a side note, a pound is abbreviated lb because the pound is based off of the libra, the ancient Roman unit of weight measurement. To add to the confusion, the word pound is based off of another Latin word, pondo, which approximately means "by weight." Yeah, I still don't get it either." You and me both, brother. Also, for the helpful people who've opinted out that the Sandaine's official personal name is Hiruzen, that hadn't been the case when this was written, and was minor enough I'd forgotten about it then and don't care enough to change it now. If you must, you can call it another of the small changes caused by the Haruno clan not becoming merchants and having the Aburame expand their silk-trading sideline to pick up the slack over the past two or three hundred years, which is the "official" divergence point of this fic from ... well, technically from "Teenage Genin Ninja Heroes" by Valles aka Nathan Baxter, who gets a minor role on camera in this fic, but since the official divergence in that one was his SI arriving when canon hadn't gotten past the Kakashi Gaiden, and I've revised some things to be in line with post-timeskip historical revelations, it's more of a mix by now. If you think of the multiverse as being a big apartment building, we're still in the action/comedy wing of the Naruto floor, but instead of three doors down the hall it's more like around a corner and past the elevator shaft.

Omake: Roll Titles!

(feel free to paste this to the top of your local copy, if you like...)

In a slightly off dimension  
>A step to the left or three<br>(Tra la la!)  
>Yamanaka girl, young and blonde and cute<br>Met two Haruno in black and red suits

Her family wanted them to suck some face  
>But she had other opinions so they went to mental space!<p>

(Ninpo: Shintenshin no jutsu!)

Just to make it feel extra weird  
>They're always linked in the head<br>(Tra la la!)  
>And then they're the twin older brothers<br>Of her ex-best friend

Ninja roll call!  
>Jinrei! "I'm inside!"<br>Inoshi! "I'm her dad!"  
>Kenshiro! "That's me!"<br>Inoooooooooo!

We'll replay a past mission  
>To help explain our mind<br>(Tra la la!)  
>And to explain why Ino's clan<br>Thinks we're really quite a find  
>(Tra la la!)<br>As for their plans to wed her off  
>Such political hacks<br>Just repeat to yourself  
>"Free choice," Ino,<br>"I should really just relax!"

For Mystery Haruno Theater 3000!  
>(bwong!)<p>

Ino was gaping, eyes blank and face blue with shock, and Kenshiro elbowed his other self in the ribs. "Told you she'd think it was weird," he muttered sotto voce.

END OF LINE


	6. TXY: Barriers to Entry

txy04_Naruto_Gaiden

2007-12-13 - initial file created, notes transferred from DWMB saves  
>2007-12-25 - hoverboard snippet<br>2008-04-23 - objectives organized  
>2008-05-02 - Hinata's scene and the Academy as the new intro<br>2008-05-08 - team meeting and swing scenes  
>2008-05-09 - Mizuki talk to end<br>2011-11-13 - FFn edit, several significant improvements in phrasing

Hyuuga Hinata walked slowly toward the Konoha Ninja Academy like a quiet little ball of misery, or a lone cloud scudding across the sky unnoticed and far from the sun. It had been months since she'd seen Naruto, or even heard about one of his big pranks that once had set the whole village talking... Not that she'd ever want to see him in trouble, but somehow it seemed like he'd just disappeared from Konoha. Even Sakura, that he'd used to have such a cute crush on, or Kiba and Shikamaru that he'd skip classes with sometimes said they hadn't seen him when she finally got up the courage to ask.

Sakura had guessed that he must have dropped out since his grades were poor, and the rumors said he'd already failed the year-end exam and repeated once. She didn't want to believe that though; he'd never been in the same class but he was the same age as them, so it should have been his final year as well.

Sometimes, she felt like she was disappearing herself, like she was sinking forever into the shadows without the light of the person she admired to guide her out of their clutches. Her father hadn't even spoken to her to tell her he was disappointed in weeks. It wasn't that she had become any better, he just hadn't acknowledged her presence, even that much. She was pretty sure Iruka-sensei hadn't missed her at roll call yet, but he never seemed to call on her for answers any more, either.

Even Kurenai-sempai, the chuunin who'd collected her when she started at the Academy and who'd seemed to make a point of talking to her every few days and trying to get her to eat bigger lunches, hadn't been around lately, not since she'd told Hinata she was going to attempt the Jounin Exam. She hoped that was just because a jounin had no time for useless people, and not something worse... the red-eyed woman had been kind to her. She shrank further into her over sized jacket at the thought.

Clutching the bag with her texts and homework scrolls closer to her chest, Hinata tried to convince herself that he was fine. She just knew Naruto would never have quit, no matter what Sakura said! If she could just see him again, she'd, she'd definitely... "Naruto-kun..." she sighed, sadly wishing she could believe she'd be bold enough to talk to the boy if she saw him.

"Eh? What is it?" The voice was unexpectedly loud and close behind her, making Hinata squeak and jump in shock. Spinning around she found herself face to puzzled, foxy face with the object of her musing. The Hyuuga heiress felt her throat close up with shock, and her face burning in a deep blush. He was there! He was wearing a hitae-ate! He was looking at her! He was...! He...!

Hinata made a few inarticulate vowel sounds, then her eyes rolled back and she started to fold up, brain overloaded by racing thoughts and the rush of blood to her head.

Legend of Explosive Youth Part Four

Team Explosive Youth: A New Skill! The Explosive Power of Youth Cannot be Denied!

Naruto caught the collapsing girl by the shoulders with a flustered squawk, clutching her to his chest as she slipped toward the ground. "AH, AAH!" he panicked, "WHAT WAS THAT! WHAT?" He traded worried and confused looks with Rikou, not clinging to his arm as they walked along for once, and gibbered, "I didn't do anything! I was just walking and heard my name and turned around and she got all red and passed out! You saw, right, right!"

"I didn't hear anything," the tall girl replied, "but as for the rest... Maybe she's not feeling well? No hitae-ate but she has a kunai pouch, so she's probably an Academy student. Let's take her there, since it's close, and the sensei will know what to do. Here, I'll help you get her on your back to carry her, and get her bag and your chakra board."

*Moving? Warm...* Someone was carrying her piggy-back? Hinata opened her eyes and looked to see who it was, only to swoon again when she realised it was Naruto she was riding.

And again.

And the third time.

It wasn't until she roused to see Iruka-sensei's worried face as he gently slapped her cheeks that she managed to hold onto consciousness, shaking her head that she was fine and hurrying to her seat as she realized that it hadn't been a dream, that Naruto was in fact still in the classroom with another, unfamiliar girl, looking at her with concern.

Seeing the shy girl scurry to her usual seat in the back, Iruka suppressed a sigh - he knew he should make a bigger effort to reach out to her, but it was hard enough keeping the loud, lazy, and trouble-making students in line; though the young Hyuuga might not be a prodigy she was solidly in the top half of the class rankings and somehow just wasn't that noticeable. Considering that he was trying to train ninja, traits like that weren't exactly undesireable - on a mission, her and her team mates' lives might depend on the ability to blend into the background. Still, he felt guilty sometimes.

Thinking of trouble makers, the chuunin shot a glance at the orange-jacketed demon host still loitering near his desk and the carefully neutral-faced Mizuki. He'd never had the boy in his own classes, but the stories he'd heard in the staff room! He tried to stifle the automatic dislike, it wasn't as if he'd ever personally suffered from one of the brat's pranks, and he knew Sandaime had said he wasn't really the demon made human, just an innocent who'd had the bad luck to be born in time to be used in the sealing, but still...

He'd heard that the boy's team had just returned from a mission, and his teacher's instincts provided a way to try salving his conscience on that score and get the class into a receptive frame of mind for the review lesson he had planned to prepare for the final exam tomorrow. Making up his mind, he called, "Quiet, everyone. Class, this is Maito Rikou and Uzumaki Naruto, who graduated last term, and just got back from a long trip outside the village." Turning to the two genin, now wondering why they were being introduced, he asked, "If it's not troublesome, perhaps you could tell the class how things you learned here helped you on your mission?"

Naruto bounced excitedly and beamed, obviously thrilled to be asked to talk. Rikou nodded energetically as well, replying, "Of course! To fan the fires of their youthful spirit... it's practically our duty as ninja of Konoha!"

"Yeah! Yeah!" Naruto agreed. "Gai-sensei would be ashamed if we didn't give it one hundred percent for their springtime of youth! No, two hundred percent! A thousand!"

Meanwhile his assistant sidled over and hissed in Iruka's ear. "What are you doing! Don't you want that.. THING out of here as soon as possible? What if it attacks the students!" Iruka gave Mizuki a searching look, then quietly ordered, "Go and get the targets set up for shuriken practise outside. I'll bring the class out when we're done in here."

Seeing how buzzed her team mate was, Rikou let him lead the discussion, watching fondly as he sucked up the attention like a sponge.

"Yeah! Yeah! The basics are super important, like Gai-sensei always says, because a weak foot can't support a strong ninja! Like, when that missing-nin bastard from Hidden Snow suddenly appeared and slashed Gai-sensei with his chopper-thingy, and Gai-sensei escaped with a simple kawarimi! Or when they had Lee all tied up in their grapples and Rikou-chan cut him loose with thrown kunai! And then when we were fighting all those goons while Gai-sensei and Ero-sennin handled the Snow bastards, and I kept them all confused with bunshin so they didn't know who was real!"

Getting the feeling he may have left himself open, Iruka cut in, "That all sounds very... exciting... but a little more dangerous than a mission a rookie genin team would be given."

"Well, it was only supposed to be a message delivery for Jiraya the Frog Hermit," Rikou explained, "but things got a little difficult. There was a gang smuggling ninja tools from Snow Country, and they had a couple of nuke-nin to help them... it was supposed to only be a C-rank mission, but with youth and spirit we overcame all limits, and triumphed with the explosive power of youth!"

"Yeah, yeah! It was so cool, Gai-sensei summoned this BIIIG turtle to shield everyone from that crazy combo-ninjutsu that the Snow-yaros totally ripped off from our 'Murasu' and then he was all like bang! Pow! Zoom!" the blond enthused.

Seeing the bewildered looks on the students' faces and Iruka's waning patience, Rikou decided to step in again. "The question was about Academy basics, though," she reminded her companion. She pursed her lips for a minute, then said thoughtfully but loud enough for the class to hear, "It's not so much that the Academy techniques get used so often directly, but when you do need them you need to be able to do them fast and well, like in the examples Naruto-kun mentioned before. More importantly, they're the foundation for all the more advanced skills you'll learn as a ninja. There was this time we were training with Tousan, even before graduating and getting him as our jounin sensei..."

"Maaa, Gai-senseeeeei," Naruto had complained, "Why do we only train in taijutsu! That's Lee's specialty! I want to learn a cool ninjutsu, yeah! You're a jounin, right, you gotta know lots of cool ones. YEAH, YEAH! NINJUTSU!"

"I remember that!" Naruto exclaimed. "I thought Gai-sensei was really mad for a minute, but he had a good lesson, dattebayo. He gave me a good knock to get my attention, then he was all like 'NARUTO! Heed my burning message!'" the blond explained, using his best impersonation of his mentor's voice. He'd obviously taken the words to heart, as he repeated them verbatim despite his usually notoriously bad memory for abstract concepts. "'Regardless of your specialty as a ninja, you must have a solid knowledge of the basic skills, and taijutsu is the MOST fundamental skill of a ninja! Strength and speed of the body, cunning tactics, excellent chakra control, skill with standard tools, and a thorough grounding in ninjutsu theory to quickly recognise and counter an enemy's techniques! These are the basics of shinobi!'"

Even if she was privately sure that she was lacking in all those basics, even if Naruto was only there for a few minutes, even if that other girl was a little -too- familiar with him... it was still the best day Hyuuga Hinata could ever remember at the Academy. The smile and well wishes Naruto gave her when they finally left bouyed her through the review on Bunshin, shuriken practise, and even through dinner that evening, where somehow the entire serving dish of rice and vegetables in front of her place vanished without her noticing. The next day, the day of the exam, she was more her usual self, but so brimming with energy that she just couldn't help but face the tests with a tiny bit of enthusiasm - she even smiled when Iruka-sensei congratulated her as she collected her hitae-ate, a full smile with teeth and everything!

Naruto-kun HADN'T given up, he'd become an amazing ninja just like she'd always been sure he would. He'd even spoken to her - told her he knew she'd get better soon and wished her good luck! After a long cold winter, the springtime had returned to her world. How could she -not- smile, just a little bit?

From the blazing wildfire an ember was blown free, and a tiny new flame was kindled.

* * *

><p>"YAHOOOOOO!"<p>

Not so long ago, a certain ninja tool was captured and taken as a prize by a young Hidden Leaf genin.

"YAHOOOOOO!"

Through the use of this tool and a bit of chakra manipulation similar to the tree-climbing and water-walking control exercises, it is possible to move along nearly any solid or liquid surface at a high rate of speed.

"THIS ROOOOOOCKS!"

Of course, it can also be used in various ways as a potent weapon, as can practically any other piece of ninja gear, but all Naruto cared about at that moment was how incredibly fun it was zipping through and around the streets of Konoha slalom-fashion, like an orange and green whirlwind of chaos. Not that he realized quite how much chaos was involved, either, but between the shock factor and the wind from his slipstream, the disruption was considerable.

"YOOOOOOSH! WE FLY WITH THE WINGS OF YOUTHFUL SPIRIT, NARUTO!"

And that was without even taking into acount the fact that Rock Lee was balancing behind him, the extra weight counteracted by pumping more power into the hoverboard. The boy had been feeling a bit left out when his team mates finally got around to trying out the device that morning, lacking the ability to channel enough chakra to activate it. Fortunately, he has a good friend whose chakra runneth over, and who is all too happy to have something fun to share and even more so about a friend to share it with.

"YEAH! YEAH! EXPLOSIVE POWER, YATTAAAA!"

Or... perhaps... unfortunately?

That afternoon, Gai greeted his students with an unusually stern face. It wasn't entirely unexpected, once the boys' wild ride had finished it hadn't taken them long to realize the amount of havoc they'd caused, and the bulk of the day's Self Rules after that had involved doing their training excercises while helping to repair what damage they could... Where the villagers didn't just curse them and run them off, at least.

Having recently learned the real story of the kyuubi's attack twelve years before, they were hyper-aware of the way most of the adult inhabitants of Konohagakure still blamed Naruto for the terrible losses it had inflicted. To tell the truth, both of his friends were slightly awed by how well he took it; it seemed that finally understanding the reason for the cold looks and harsh words, even if they were undeserved, had opened a damper on the hearth of his spirit, and being the object of such treatment could no longer force it shut.

If not for having taken responsibility on their own Gai would have assigned several days of heavy punishments (in the form of intensive special training, of course, and in highly public view) but as matters stood he decided a verbal scolding would be enough, combined with a return to D-rank missions for a while. Even he found those dull and uninteresting, despite the opportunity to add Self Rules until they at least offered a physical challenge.

"Ah, my students," he greeted them upon arriving at the team's usual training area. "I heard there was a large disturbance in Konoha today... It is good to enjoy the springtime of youth, but it is also important not to become too troublesome." Suddenly he grinned, in a way that made it all too clear that he shared more than the ideals of hard work and loyalty with Naruto. "Except to my eternal rival Kakashi," he amended, "whose hip attitude requires truly EXCEPTIONALLY youthful behavior to overcome!"

Naruto giggled at the memory of the ridiculous challenges - and forfeits - his mentor had a habit of presenting to the lackadaisical jounin. *The idea of Gai-sensei as a trouble-making joker like my prank-obsessed days is just too funny!* he thought.

He set that thought aside however in favor of asking, "Ne, Sensei, it was fun to have a day off to catch up on physical conditioning, but what was your meeting about? Was it super-secret? Was it about that 'Chakra Armor?' Do we get to go look for Ero-sennin again and bring him back to Konoha? Or, or, was it a super high-class mission request, and now we're escorting a lost princess who's targeted by criminals and an evil pretender to the throne!" As his imagination began to run away with the possibilities the foxy blond bounced more and more wildly in excitement.

Overcome with pride in his student, Gai swept the boy into a manly embrace. "OOOOH NARUTO! YOUR YOUTH IS SHINING BRILLIANTLY!" he cried.

"Ooh! GAI-SENSEI!" the blond called right back.

"NARUTO!"

"GAI-SENSEI!" all three genin replied, Lee and Rikou latching on from either side.

"OOOH! MY CUTE STUDENTS!"

A few minutes later, after they'd all settled down and Naruto had repeated the main point of his question, the tall jounin shook his head. "Though your willingness to serve is commendable, Naruto, such missions will not occur for a while. Though all of you have fanned the fire of your youth to impressive heights already, you are still just cute rookies. The meeting was not secret, it was merely called for all jounin sensei so that those who wished to nominate genin in their care to participate in the upcoming Chuunin Selection Exam in Iwagakure could do so."

"Chuunin exam!" Naruto's excitement returned threefold, quickly spreading to the others as well, and a babble of eager questions filled the clearing. "When is it?" "Is it hard to get to Hidden Stone?" "Will it take us a long time to get there?" "Should we bring special equipment?" "Will there be lots of strong guys there to fight?" "Yeah! Yeah! Chuunin exam! Dattebayo!" "With the power of youth..."

They tumbled to the ground as Gai delivered three all but simultaneous smacks to their foreheads to make room for his words. Lee and Rikou rubbed at the light stings left behind while Naruto's hitae-ate served its primary purpose well. "Like I said," the jounin repeated, "you are still just cute rookies. Though your youthful spirits have soared to great heights there is still a wide open sky above! That Chuunin Selection Exam, it's a test that risks death, against the best of all the Hidden Villages. Build your fire of youth higher still with the solid wood of experience, then I will enter you in it!"

It was a good attempt, but the bowl-cut man could see that his words were still a let down after his genin had worked up such youthful passion. Unable to bear the disappointment in their eyes, he quickly confirmed that they would be returning to a normal mission schedule the following day and dismissed them.

After the team meeting Naruto wandered through Konoha, not exactly dejected, but hardly his usual energetic self. He eventually found himself on the swing hanging from the tree outside the main gate of the Konoha Ninja Academy, watching the just graduated class of new genin meeting their families and celebrating. Even the folded chakra-channelling board on his back seemed to droop on its strap.

In those lonely days before he'd met even Lee, he'd often ended up here when he was feeling sad, and even as he straddled the rope to perch sideways on the wooden seat he was cheered up slightly by the thought that those days were truly gone for good - that his friends knew the worst secret anyone could be hiding, one he hadn't even known about himself, and that they had not left him.

The whisker-scarred blond knew that Gai-sensei would never dream of holding them back unfairly, that practically the man's whole existence was focused on helping them run ever faster into a brilliant future as the strongest shinobi possible, but those few minutes when he'd thought they were going to be allowed to enter the Chuunin Exam had been so... So -shining!- To be let down like that...

"If only there was a way to prove to Gai-sensei that we were strong enough, that our youth and guts are enough to overcome even the Chuunin exam, 'tebayo," he said with a sigh.

"Hm, well, maybe I can give you a hand, Naruto-kun." The unexpected voice came from above, making the boy squawk and flail as he jerked in shock and lost his balance on the swing. "EHH! It's you!" Looking up at his surprise visitor, he recognized the white haired Academy sensei who'd been sent to do something outside while he and Rikou were visiting the day before. "Pirogi... no... Nikuman... no... Miso..."

The chuunin forcefully swallowed his irritation and said gently, "Mizuki."

"Yeah, yeah, Mizuki-sensei! Uh, sorry, I kinda forgot your name..." Naruto laughed awkwardly while rubbing the back of his head.

Smiling, he replied, "It's okay, Naruto-kun, we've never met for long." The man leapt gracefully down from his perch and suggested, "Why don't we talk some more about your problem where it's a little more private."

The two of them quickly enough found a balcony to perch on, well above street level and without any living presences inside the apartment it opened from. "Gai-sensei is a person who takes his responsibilities seriously," the chuunin explained there. "Because he has seen many things as a ninja, he wants to protect those placed in his care... He wants to be sure you are strong enough to succeed at your dreams."

Mizuki smiled kindly at the genin beside him. "It's probable he sees some of himself in you," he confided. "A student gifted with no special talent in the ninja arts, who still graduated early through sheer guts and hard work to gain skills that exceeded the talented." The white haired Academy sensei became more solemn as he continued, "And yet, because of conflicts in the world and his rivalry with the genius Kakashi, he threw himself into certain situations that were almost too much for even him. Now, like a parent, he wants to prevent his students from doing unnecessary things."

"Like... A parent?" Naruto thought of how Gai treated Rikou, and realized that it really was about the same as Lee and himself. He didn't really know what to make of the idea, it seemed too strange and precious to face head on, as if thinking about it might somehow tarnish it.

The chuunin hummed thoughtfully and considered the boy through the screen of his windblown hair. *Actually, I have no idea what the loud idiot's childhood was like, and the notion of -Maito Gai- wanting to prevent people from doing unnecessary things...! But it sounds good, and it's steering the demon brat in the right direction. Another nudge or two and...* "It might be difficult," he said, "but try to understand Gai's feelings, even if it's an unusual circumstance for you."

Lost in thought, Naruto rubbed circles on the tops of his jumpsuit clad knees. At length, he replied, "Even then... I still wish he'd nominated us..."

*Gotcha!* Pulling his feet up onto the balcony so he could turn and face the boy, Mizuki beamed at him. "Well then, I'll tell you a special secret... A test only the best rookies are offered, to prove they're ready for more important things in the ninja world."

A few hours later, the duplicitous chuunin was feeling quite a bit less smug. He'd sent the brat into the Hokage's residence all of ten minutes ago, and he'd already been caught! He could hear the old geezer questioning him now, and when the demon inevitably sold -him- out... Mizuki cursed and got ready to flee. *If I don't have Konoha's treasured scroll to buy my way into another village's protection, it'll be much harder...*

Inside the large but modestly appointed home, Naruto was desperately trying to think of a plausible reason to have come to see the Gramps so late... And then, he remembered one. Doing his prankster's best to look like he hadn't just been sneaking around he looked seriously up into the old man's wizened face. "I thought it would be better to be alone, when I asked you a certain question," he explained. "After that mission, Gai-sensei told you I found out about the fox, right?"

His stern expression faded away, and Sarutobi Cheishamaru squeezed his eyes closed for a moment as the exhaustion of a long day caught up with him. He reflected sadly on the hardships this young boy had been forced to face, and how poorly the Fourth's last wishes had been carried out. "Yes," he replied, "and also that you told your team mates, and how they accepted it." He smiled fondly down at the lad, continuing, "While I am happy that you found such good friends, and it is your right to tell whomever you may choose, I hope you understand that unfortunately, not everyone is likely to be so accepting, Naruto."

Nodding sagely, the blond genin replied, "I know... It's unfortunate, but not everyone has the brilliant youthful spirit of Lee-kun, Rikou-chan, and Gai-sensei. But, because they are my precious friends, they deserved to be entrusted with it!" He threw a thumbs-up then, with a foxy grin that glinted in the light of the paper-shaded raiton lamp overhead.

Naruto held his Nice-Guy Pose for a few seconds before getting to the point. "But, that time in Kirika, Ero-sennin mentioned something else... I asked him if I had a family, and he said I should ask you because the details were classified by that same law to protect me from enemies my father had."

"Your father..." the old man said, contemplatively. "He was... an amazing ninja. Because of his skill, he gained high rank and even political power... But those things also made enemies, from those in other countries who felt the fangs of that skill, and those in the Leaf who desired power for themselves." He shook his head gently and ruffled the earnest looking boy's hair, so painfully similar to his father's. "It's still too soon to reveal that, I think... But I'll give you another clue, he was a lot like you are."

Shrugging indignantly out from under the Hokage's hand, Naruto grimaced and pouted, "Stingy! I'll show you, Ojiji! My latest super ninjutsu!" With a single seal and a burst of smoke, he transformed into a nubile young woman, only a few lingering wisps of smoke giving the faint illusion of modesty as she blew a kiss at Sarutobi. As the tired old man collapsed with a massive nosebleed he giggled mischievously before saying, "I call it 'Oiroke no jutsu!'"

*This is even better than not getting caught,* the boy thought as he made his way to the Hokage's personal library, where the scroll that was his target was supposed to be stored. *I got to find out a little more, and even if Hokage-jiisan checks and finds the scroll missing he'll think it was just another prank for revenge!*

Just before Naruto yelled loud enough that the traitor would have known his plan was still moving, his nerve broke and Mizuki began roof-hopping, fleeing desperately in hopes of getting outside the wall of the village before the brat spilled everything and the Hokage called out the ANBU.

Something else moved in the darkness behind him, and he chanced a look back. *Is that... Damn! It was a mask! They're after me already!* A few buildings back, one of those feared manhunters was following, the moon's pale light flashing from a white mask as the other nin gained on him. Quickly judging their relative speed the new fugitive pulled out a stack of explosive tags and fanned them between his fingers, slapping them against a ridgepole and arming them with a few seconds' delay as he bounded onward.

Haruno Rin, newest Candidate Inductee of the elite ANBU, was on a dango run for her cousin and squad captain Ichimaru when the world suddenly erupted in fire. She silently thanked the designers of the uniform for including the mask as a shard of roofing tile that would have ripped a bloody gash in her cheek and could have ricocheted off the cheekbone to damage her eye whacked into the sturdy facial guard hard enough to set her tumbling as she sailed through the air and glanced off it harmlessly. Well, harmlessly to her, judging from the sound of the hit it probably left a big crack... but even if so, and the mask had to be replaced, she was definitely going to keep this one for her souvenir shelf.

Landing roughly before 'rising' into an easy crouch on the wall of another building as more tiles and wreckage fell around her, she quickly thought over the situation. There'd been some one else ahead of her on the same route - they were wearing a standard Konoha chuunin uniform but clothes meant little - and that had to have been at least a dozen explosive tags. She hadn't even touched the roof before it exploded, so the trap had to have been either timed or remotely triggered, and she hadn't detected a triggering chakra pulse either. That still meant whoever it was had intentionally left a potentially lethal trap in her path, and even as a mere 'Candy-ass' only provisionally accepted in the ANBU that was a capital offense - an ANBU was assumed to be acting on the Hokage's authority any time she wore the mask, and attacking her was treason.

There were three primary traits that had gotten her into the elite unit so young. The enhanced physical toughness the Snake-Bastard's experiments had left her with had already done its part, letting her resist the force of the explosion and landing without appreciable harm. Her tactical sense (it was the Ansatsu /Senjutsu/ Tokushu Butai, after all) had let her cut to the heart of the situation in a flash but with only one, fleeing opponent and only herself (for the moment, at least) to give chase the was no need for fancy maneuvers. Speed, though... That was her strongest specialty, superior even to some Jounin, and it was just what was called for now.

She was gone before the last tile hit the ground, and less than half an hour later a rather... irked... Morino Ibiki set about interrogating the fool who'd dared to put an explosive trap in the path of one of his subordinates... on the roof of the ANBU Division Commander's own house, no less.

Suffice it to say, Mizuki told all, with absolute honesty and (one might say) excruciating detail. He even admitted to how he tricked the Uzumaki kid into it, or at least he after feeling the penalty for lying.

Since he'd heard Sandaime personally catch the kid in the act and civil discipline for that boy had been ruled the exclusive purview of the Hokage after certain incidents when he was younger, the matter was considered closed, and no one thought any further about the Scroll of Forbidden Seals once the reports were complete and appropriately sealed copies made for the local records, Archives Division, and the Hokage's office.

It was nearly dawn by the time Naruto had 'Kage Bunshin' down well enough to feel confident in the skill, but he had to admit - it was even more awesome than summoning. He'd still never gotten a frog big enough to talk except that one time using the kyuubi's chakra, and he didn't dare bother Bunta-oyabun again unless it was a tight pinch. But with Kage Bunshin, he could become his own sparring partner! At least, once he got the hang of making less clones with a certain amount of chakra, so they had enough to recover a little instead of vanishing after a single hit. The next couple of jutsu looked really cool as well, it was too bad he'd have to leave soon for his morning training or Gai-sensei would get suspicious - he wanted to be really amazing with this special test, even if Mizuki-sensei had said he only needed to learn a single jutsu...

"Wait a minute!" he shouted, inspiration hitting like one of Gai-sensei's punches. "I can go train, and still study 'Shuriken Kage Bunshin' and 'Bunshin Daibakuha,' all I have to do is leave some kage bunshin to learn them and they can teach me later after they figure it out! And since they're me, it'll be easy to understand the explanation for once!"

He jumped up from the mossy root he'd been sitting on to rest for a few minutes, crowing, "Certainly, certainly, 'Kage Bunshin' is the best jutsu ever! Dattebayo!" He formed the crossed finger seal but paused before molding the neccessary chakra - it wouldn't do any good if the bunshin ran out of energy before he could come back and learn the skills from them, and he didn't think the Hokage would miss the scroll being gone for more than one day, if even that long. More importantly, it would probably be too late for Gai-sensei to say he'd changed his mind about letting the team enter the exams soon, so he'd have to learn as much as possible to show him by the end of the day.

The clones would have to use up chakra trying to learn the skills, too... he was going to need a whole lot to pull this off. He didn't really want to deal with such a thing again, but... "Ero-sennin said learning to control the fox's chakra was just a matter of hard work, and I promised Gai-sensei I'd never run from working hard to get stronger! I won't go back on my word, dattebayo!"

Closing his eyes he concentrated on the memory of how he'd felt when he was falling into the cliff-side gorge, and the huge cage with the demon lord locked inside. Thinking as 'loudly' as he could, he mentally shouted, *HEY, YOU NINE-TAILS ASSHOLE! LAST TIME YOU COMPLAINED ABOUT ME BEING STUPID AND WEAK, SO GIMME SOME CHAKRA! I'M GONNA LEARN AN AWESOME JUTSU AND GET STRONGER!* Then he started molding chakra, more and more, until it stopped being a relief, until it actually felt kind of draining, even more until he started to feel like a festival balloon all puffed up with air... and that was when the burning sensation started in his belly button, spreading rapidly across his abdomen and then to his whole body. His eyes screwed tighter shut at the half-remembered feeling, as if his bones had been replaced with a fire ninjutsu and were cooking him from the inside out, and thought hard about only forming a single shadow clone before finally releasing all that power through the seal pattern and into the world around him.

Naruto sagged at the release, breathing hard as he heard the characteristic musical squeal of molded chakra taking effect, then finally opened his eyes.

Half a dozen kage bunshin looked back at him, with the same slightly puffy left eye and grass stained jacket, and the same expression as they realized there were still a few kinks to work out in control over that jutsu. His body still hummed with energy, though, as Naruto realized as soon as his breathing normalized. That was good, it meant he wouldn't be too tired today despite missing a night of sleep.

"Breath, thought, action, victory, like Gai-sensei said," he told himselves. "Now we've got our breath back, so it's time for you guys to get thinking while I go into action with Lee, Rikou, and Gai-sensei! I'll come back as soon as our mission is over, so you can teach me these other cool moves and then it's victory and the chuunin exams! Dattebayo!"

"DATTEBAYO!" the bunshin squad shouted back. Seven identical Nice Guy Poses sent up a smile-glint glare that should have been dazzlingly bright, but was unusually manageable.

As he tree hopped away to join his team, Naruto idly wondered if the slightly purplish eyes were a flaw in his technique or standard for 'Kage Bunshin.' It was dark when he was practicing before, so he hadn't been able to see colors much despite the full moon.

Then he wondered if kunoichi kept their nails long to give a better grip on bark, because his were kind of getting to where he should trim them but if it worked as well as it seemed he might not bother as long as they didn't look too girly.

Then he thought about ramen. Three thoughts in a row before ramen came up was actually a pretty good record for Naruto.

Team Explosive Youth was just finishing up stacking the firewood they'd split for Kubome-ojisan when Naruto froze, blinked, and said, "Oh, so that's how it works!" Puzzled at this (odd even for them) behavior, his sensei and team mates stopped as well to look curiously as he seemed lost in thought, balanced on one leg with the other extended to take a step and carrying a load of fire wood easily twice his own weight. A few seconds later the rumble of a distant explosion rolled across Konoha, and he roused - only to toss the whole load into the air with a jerk as he shouted, "AAAAH! THE SCROLL!" and took off on his hoverboard with a thunderclap of displaced air and a small crater where he'd kicked off from the ground.

Having just set their own last loads down, Gai leapt after the abandoned logs and gathered them with style and youthful flair, simultaneously ordering, "Lee! Follow Naruto! Rikou and I shall catch up!"

Fortunately Kubome-ojisan's house was about as close as anything in Konoha got to his choice of training ground, so it wasn't a long trip and the fox boy was the first to arrive. It was a very relieved Naruto who found a single, swirly-eyed shadow clone still intact on the lee side of a boulder, the Scroll of Forbidden Seals lying open beside him where he'd been the last one left practising 'Shuriken Kage Bunshin' against the trunk of a nearby tree. Even that one popped when Naruto tried to shake some sense back into him, and all Naruto could figure was that the rest had gotten tired of waiting for this one and had already memorized the instructions for 'Bunshin Daibakuha' since it only used a single simple seal, and went to go practise that skill in a different clearing instead of waiting around any more.

Actually, he was pretty sure that was exactly what happened, which was wierd since there wan't any way to really tell thanks to the huge crater blasted into the forest and the only clone left vanishing before he could get it to say anything. What was really wierd was that he seemed to know how to do the two jutsu he'd left the clones to learn despite not having been able to have them teach him, reading the instructions as he cleaned the scroll brought each part back as if he'd worked on them for hours himself. Maybe that was what the scroll had meant about the mental imprint thingamabob from dispelling chakra?

Thinking about that kind of thing made his head hurt, so he concentrated on winding the scroll up evenly and not leaving any dirt or grass caught inside. He was double checking it for damage as Lee arrived, and just rolling it back up as Gai and Rikou came along afterward.

The Jounin immediately recognised the coding on the wrapper that marked it as being an S-rank secret document and demanded, "Naruto! Where did you get that scroll? It should not be here, lying in the forest near the remains of a suspiciously recent, large explosion!" He kept most of his attention on the surroundings, searching for any enemies who might have had something to do with the blast and the scroll's presence.

"There's no need to be suspicious, Gai-sensei!" the blond proudly proclaimed. "After I found out about the special test, I went and got this scroll from Hokage-ojisan myself, and trained all night with the power of youth! Watch, watch!" He formed the crossed hand seal and molded just enough chakra for the technique to work (which was still quite a bit, and hence much easier to measure than the normal bunshin had been), then announced, "Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" As planned, a single clone appeared, with only a tiny amount of chakra smoke to indicated wasted energy. "Next, 'Shuriken Kage Bunshin!' Sorry, clone guy, you're the target."

"Aw, boss! No fair!" the clone complained, but dutifully started running away around the rim of the crater. The original Naruto drew a single kunai and threw it after the retreating clone, then quickly did the needed seals and announced the technique, turning the lone blade into a hundred that flew trough the air with an ominous whistle before popping the clone and then dissipating themselves as well into so much drifting smoke.

"Okay! One More!" the bouncing blond shouted, popping out another kage bunshin before the astounded eyes of his teacher. Without waiting for instructions this time, the clone announced, "YOSH! I'll prove that the power of youth really IS explosive, dattebayo!" He jumped onto his (also cloned) hover board, skimmed down into the bottom of the crater and back using the wall as a ramp to get some serious air, and yelled, "Bunshin Daibakuha!" before blasting apart in a bright blue flash of chakra, creating a shockwave like the stronger sort of explosive tag that knocked all three genin off their feet.

"See, see? Mizuki-sensei said I only had to learn one jutsu to pass the secret test, but I got three, because no one gets strong doing just the minimum! I passed the test, so now we get to go to the chuunin exams, right, right?"

As soon as he heard the traitor's name Gai's eyes stopped shining and narrowed. He'd heard about the excitement the night before, but since the Hokage hadn't mentioned anything when they went to collect the day's mission he'd thought the matter settled. "Naruto..." he began seriously, "Did Hokage-sama give you this scroll to learn from? It is a very secret treasure of Konoha, which should have been far beyond your level."

Naruto laughed a bit sheepishly, "Eh heheh... Mizuki-sensei just said I had to get away, even if I think he meant I couldn't get caught... but when that gramps caught me we talked for a little bit and then I knocked him out with my other new jutsu, 'Oiroke,' and took it from his library..."

A few seconds later, a resounding bellow of "YOU FOOL!" rolled across Konoha as the explosion had minutes earlier. The unmistakeable voice of Maito Gai reassured the wary shinobi still heading toward the site of the disturbance, and while the ones who'd already reached it had stayed back too far to make out what exactly genin and sensei were saying, the frankly rather impressive jutsu demonstration and the fond but stern beating which followed told the story well enough:

One of the crazy jounin's mini-clones had gone overboard with a training excercise involving explosive ninjutsu, with predictable results. Most of them were only surprised it hadn't happened before or taken part of the village with it instead of uninhabited forest. All of them left before the punishment could turn into tear-filled promises of improvement and forgiveness, inevitably followed by the hugging and shining smiles and posing. Some things were too much for even hardened killers to stomach.

When all of that had finally been settled, Gai collected the huge scroll from his already nearly recovered student and sorrowfully proclaimed, "The spirit of youth refuses to be repressed, so I will forgive you, my impetuous student! Alas, I still cannot allow you to enter this series of exams, BUT! My cute genin shall be entered in the very next exam, at which time the true flowers of the springtime of youth will surely have bloomed! You will certainly dominate then, with the explosive power of your impassioned youth!"

It was nearing sunset when Team Explosive Youth returned the Scroll of Forbidden Seals to the Hokage, with numerous heart felt apologies and vows of added training to engrave the lessons learnt on their hearts. Since the ANBU report had been marked 'case closed' it had steadily been shuffled to the bottom of Sarutobi's in-box as he slogged through the daily mountain of paperwork. It was still there, unread, as he forgave Naruto for the offense in return for a promise never to use 'that jutsu' against him again.

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><p>(Would you like to know more?)<p>

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><p>... Only Hinata could see the boy she likes showing a huge crush on another girl, and think how sweet it is that he's willing to go to such lengths just to try to be noticed, and admire the courage he shows in doing so. Though, I suppose it might have been different even for her if Sakura had shown signs of reciprocating.<p>

Kurenai hasn't been around not because she's forgotten about Hinata or been injured, but because she's been busting her ass fulfilling the remaining requirements to get a genin team after making it to Elite Jounin in the exams. Like Tenten, one of her central goals is to prove kunoichi can be just as good as male ninja, and she's actually tied with Gai in third for age of making Elite Jounin after Itachi and Kakashi, and that without the dubious benefit of quick wartime promotions. Hinata being part of that year's graduating class and the interest she's taken in the shy younger girl's career are the other reason why she pushed so hard to be immediately eligible for a genin team, and she requested Hinata's future cell as soon as those requirements were met. Seeing no reason not to and in light of Kurenai having already formed a bond with the excessively shy girl, Iruka seconded the request once she passed the Academy final and Sarutobi has agreed.

Iruka's dislike for Naruto - Contrary to the standard fan view that Iruka formed a mentor/brotherly relationship with Naruto early in his Academy time, my own reading of the manga chapters and review of the first anime episode suggests that Iruka didn't really like him much before Sandaime's talk after the graduation test and the Mizuki incident, and if the trip to Ichiraku Ramen after cleaning the monument wasn't the first one it didn't happen more than a handful of times before that, and only because Iruka was fighting his own prejudices against the container of the demon vs. the kid's obvious lonliness echoing Iruka's own past, down to being the class clown. Since they haven't had even that much contact what with Naruto graduating before falling into Iruka's class's final year, there's not really any personal knowledge to base a genuine judgement on, just what Iruka has heard from various people and his own honest nature.

Haruno Rin was a character-bunny spawned by Darwithe, originally conceived in place of Sakura he aged her up a little and donated her for use in LoXY! I aged her up another year myself, making her 16 as of this appearance, and though it didn't actually affect this little segment adjusted her abilities upwards to better reflect my version of the Haruno clan's bloodline abilities. She was also the unfortunate subject of some of Orochimaru's experiments before being chased out of the Leaf, which, again, had very little showing beyond a mention of being unusually durable. She has a younger brother, Haruno Shima, who will get an even less glorious bit part later on, and her (deceased, Mizuki is her personal prime suspect for the rape and murder) mother was the only child of a successful bake. While her father was brother to Sakura's father he was more interested in civilian life, and they took over the shop together when the old man retired. He is rather unhappy that both of his children have entered the dangerous ninja lifestyle instead of continuing the bakery - he hopes that at least one of them will get it out of their systems in time to settle down, help out, and provide an heir before getting killed. Her name is properly spelled with the 'rin' meaning 'companion' but she prefers to use the one for 'cold.' She has no connection to Kakashi's genin team mate, who was jounin-sensei to Neshan, Kabuto, and Shino's (deceased) older sister.

Kubome - sunken/deep-set eyes (Interestingly, I found this word while searching for 'deep' for something else - the next listing was 'Kurenai' meaning 'deep red.' It makes me wonder if the red eyed character design came before or after the name)

Kage Bunshin - I'll be shocked if anyone doesn't already know this, but it means 'shadow clone.' The basic idea behind more power making them more durable is that with sufficiently trained chakra control they can reform from small disruptions - if they couldn't withstand any impact at all, they'd vanish as soon as they landed a punch, and we've seen them last longer than that. The cloned chopper works as a hoverboard because the bunshin are ultimately nothing but a packet of energy simulating real mass, and can move however Naruto believes they can move. With his fuuton affinity it would work as a weapon, too, but without the enhanced efficiency of the real thing. Of course, he doesn't actually know any fuuton techniques at this point, so the point is moot for now.

Shuriken Kage Bunshin - unsurprisingly, 'throwing star shadow clone' - a technique requiring far less chakra but greater control, Shuriken Kage Bunshin (name variable as required to match the weapon used) is a ninjutsu used on a thrown weapon to multiply it by whatever factor the user can spare chakra for, saving on carried equipment and overwhelming enemy defenses by turning each weapon thrown into a swarm. Naruto, of course, has the chakra for truly massive multiplication factors, and while he does study taijutsu of course, where he really goes whole hog is chakra control training. The problem is, those excercises are boring to write about, and every time I try to include them 'on camera' the scene is crap and gets deleted.

Bunshin Daibakuha - 'clone big explosion' - Supposedly, Itachi knows this jutsu; it's listed in one of the rescource books for him anyway. In my version, it's a suicide technique that only works on solid type bunshin - though it would kill a normal user, they wouildn't explode properly - by turning all the chakra in their body into a massive blast of force. Kage bunshin are actually the least efficient type for this as they have no integral matter to to be propelled by the pressure wave, but the large amount of chakra contained in one typically makes up for it. The amount of chakra in a part-kyuubi-powered kage bunshin, well, that's just nuts, as you can see, even when the amount of kyuubi chakra pulled out was relatively miniscule. This one just fit too well with the ongoing themes of the story to pass up.

To tell the truth, I'm not sure the direction the sun is shown rising and setting in Konoha is even consistent, let alone having the Hokage Monument looking due south, but that's how it is for LoXY! as the one thing I don't remember seeing is the monument casting a shadow over the city.

Omake: Tales from the Cutting Room Floor

"Your father..." the old man said, contemplatively. "Powerful Jedi was he. Strong in the Force."

O_o .oO(...)

YEARS LATER, HIDDEN RAIN VILLAGE:

"Yes, Naruto," the spiky-haired Pein intoned. "-I- am your father! Search your feelings... you -know- it to be true!"

(Actually... I may yet throw out everything post-Gaara-rescue, and definitely consider it less 'canon' and more 'second-hand gossip' in terms of reliability for my purposes. Minato's clan is already locked in as something besides 'Namikaze,' if Naruto is eventually revealed to have some sort of kekkai genkai it'll have to either not have shown up in the other member seen or come from his mother.)

EOF


	7. Team 7: I Want to Read What Comes Next

Released a day early to commemorate 3000 unique visitors to all my stories. Enjoy!

Also, check out the links to LoXY! art on my profile.

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><p>txy05_t7_bells<p>

2007-12-13 - initial file created, notes transferred from DWMB saves  
>2007-12-27 - intro scene, nearly all dialogue for the bell test<br>2008-05-03 - knocked this one out as a break from Team 6  
>2008-05-09 - added HinataNeji scene to the end since this was the only part in the right time frame, it was short anyway, and this way it covers both of Lee's missing canon team mates

*Well, here goes,* Tenten thought, smoothing down her sleeveless pink blouse and re-checking the weapon and scroll holsters at her waist. *I finally get assigned to a genin team today.* It was a bit nerve wracking, even though she knew everyone from classes. If only she'd been teamed up with Neji... *Then, I wouldn't have met Neshan-sensei,* she reminded herself, and oddly enough it really was a comfort. Even if the rookies she'd be paired with somehow failed their jounin-sensei's team test, she was pretty sure the Special Jounin would let her go back to the way things had been the past year. It's not like that would be so bad, it was actually kind of fun doing something different all the time...

Genin squads are in groups of three under a jounin sensei. Always. One of the few things every known ninja village agreed on was that it was the optimum tactical arrangement for the range of missions most common in their line of work, at the level genin could handle. So, when her own class had graduated last year with sixteen students, she'd been the unlucky odd one, stuck waiting until a squad had a slot open up due to combat losses or promotion - and it had been a good year for Konoha's genin, with only two permanent casualties, both slots filled from the team who'd had a member promoted at the Chuunin Exam held in Kumogakure just after she graduated.

A genin without a team, she'd been neither fish nor fowl - not an Academy student, and not able to take missions. Normally that wouldn't be a big problem - a rookie in a situation like that would just train with their parents while they waited, or quit and enter civilian life after all - but she had no desire to sell cabbages for a living, and the kyuubi attack twelve years ago had left her orphaned at roughly a year old with no idea who her family might have been, so she had no parents to train with or mooch off of. Worse still, her Widows and Orphans Fund stipend was drastically reduced as a graduate, since genin were assumed to start taking missions, and hence getting paid. It might have gotten difficult if Neshan-sensei hadn't worked out an arrangement for her.

Because the status of active duty teams was outside the Academy senseis' purview she'd been told on that day to report to the head of the Archives Division (and thereby ultimately the Academy and Training departments as well), Special Jounin Baksuta Neshan, in order to find out what her assignment would be. Since there wasn't one available, being a generally nice sort of fellow and serious about his responsibility for seeing the students and genin of the Leaf educated, he agreed to teach her himself when he could make time from his regular work - which mainly meant during his normal personal training time, as it turned out, which had led to her dabbling in fuinjutsu since he was a master of the art. At first just for sealing scrolls to let her carry even more weapons - normal clothes could only have so many hidden pockets, after all - then for a few of the more interesting tricks he'd been able to show her.

Just being able to make her own explosive tags multiplied her threat potential tenfold, for one thing. She'd never have been able to afford the things in quantity on genin pay, let alone her stipend, and she was even able to trade them for credit at the weapon shops to get the huge numbers of kunai and shuriken she carried. It was great for her chakra control, too.

That had come later, though - when the first stipend payment after her graduation was made and she discovered that it wasn't a mistake, he'd been the only person Tenten could think of to ask for advice. He'd come through again, arranging for various stints as an assistant in one aspect or another of his division. Sometimes it was reshelving scrolls in the low-security branches of the Archives proper, sometimes she helped one of the Academy teachers (she was a student favorite as shuriken instructor, apparently, despite only having done that a half dozen times) sometimes even getting paid to help one of the jounin-sensei from other genin cells drill their team in weapons use and evasion or squad-level pursuit tactics.

A shiver ran down her spine at the thought that she could have gotten stuck with that one jounin who had his entire squad in tight body suits and those ugly leg warmers. *Maybe I was really the lucky one,* she mused. But, now it was time to get in there and join a team of her very own. Resolved, Tenten squared her shoulders (producing a faint clink of metal-on-metal, she still had to tweak the padding between the hidden pockets in a few places) slid open the classroom door, and stepped through.

* * *

><p>Legend of Explosive Youth Part Five<p>

Team Seven: I Want to Read What Comes Next

* * *

><p>Used to seeing her as an assistant teacher, the new graduates quieted slightly as Tenten entered, and some gave her odd looks as she made her way to a seat at the student desks and sat down, but things picked up again quickly enough. The Yamanaka and Haruno girls were arguing over who had the better claim to Uchiha Sasuke's heart andor other anatomy, as usual, while the boy in question steadfastly ignored them and everyone else - his making eye contact as she'd walked in was in the way of being a major social event, or would have been if it wasn't the way he 'greeted' any teacher or assistant. She was just glad his admirers either hadn't noticed or had dismissed it as a teacher-greeting, they were loud enough when she WASN'T their focus.

"I can't believe you'd two-time Sasuke-kun for my weirdo brothers!" Sakura accused shrilly. "Oh well, that just means you suit them perfectly, Ino-pig!" She waited until the scandalized blonde opened her mouth to return fire before cutting her off to continue, "Wait, since they're twins, is that two-timing or three-timing?"

Ino sputtered and reddened in a mix of embarrassment and rage, but was again interrupted before she could respond, this time by Umino Iruka, acting in his final capacity as their class's primary Ninja Academy instructor as he called for the freshly minted genin to settle down so he could announce their teams. "... Next, Team Seven. It's a little different this time; although she graduated last year Tenten will be on this team, with Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke. Team-"

Sakura's exultant shouting and end-zone dance drowned her former sensei out. He tolerated it with an amused look for a minute or so before once again calling for order so he could get on with the assignments. For her part, Tenten wondered why she'd been put with the top male and female students - she might not have been quite top of her own class, but she was far from the worst, and she'd had a whole extra year of regular one-on-one training with Neshan-sensei, not to mention more access to the stored knowledge of the Archives than the average genin thanks to her close relationship with him.

*Maybe they figured it would take the top rookies to keep up with me?* she thought to herself... from the handful of times she'd worked with their class she judged that was probably a reasonable guess, at least, though they weren't necessarily the personalities she'd have picked if she were forming her own team. She took a more assessing look at the two, since it seemed they'd be working together now.

Sakura's pink hair was a bit long and bright to really be practical, and the way she wore her hitae-ate as a hair band didn't look all that secure, but at least her maroon dress was dark enough to fade into a nondescript brown in low light without being too obviously a ninja uniform, and if the white trim was more noticeable, well, Tenten's own sleeveless top was bright pink so she couldn't talk too loud. The dark shorts under the high-slit sides were practical enough, and she had a standard butt-pack equipment pouch.

Sasuke's outfit was much darker, a high-collared navy top and grey shorts, though any pretense at subtlety was ruined by the big Uchiha crest on his back. *Someone should tell him that thing is like a big bull's eye,* she thought, *but maybe it's intentional, an armored spot to draw attention?* He had a thigh holster as well as the butt-pack, and stiff leather forearm guards secured with sport wraps for a bit of inconspicuous defense ability. His forehead protector was worn in the intended way, as well, to provide protection during headbutts and easily interposed against a thrown weapon aimed for an eye or temple.

The remaining team assignments were soon taken care of, and the genin were dismissed until the afternoon when their new jounin sensei would arrive to collect them. Sasuke immediately hopped out the window and made for somewhere secluded in order to ditch his fangirls - nothing unusual there, though for once none of them seemed tempted to try to follow anyway. Sakura was still basking in the glow of knowing she'd been teamed up with him and the rest were sulking because they hadn't, though Ino seemed to have shrugged it off and was now badgering her new team mates to go to lunch together.

*Not a bad idea,* Tenten thought, *even if Uchiha already bailed, I can still talk with Sakura and get to know each other.* Aloud she called, "Sakura! Let's go and have our lunch together, since we'll be teamed up now." She gave the pink tressed girl a friendly smile and nodded towards the classroom door.

"Sure, sempai," the younger girl replied. "I guess I got lucky to have you on my team, I'm still only so-so at shuriken..."

Tenten laughed as they headed out. "If we're going to be team mates now I think you can just call me by my name, ne? I'll still be happy to help you with your weapons practice anyway. Kunoichi gotta stick together, you know!"

Lunchtime conversation started as a less-than-subtle probe by Sakura as to whether she'd now have to start competing over Sasuke with Tenten - as if the Uchiha had anything over Hyuuga Neji, the top student from her own year! - then moved on to more general gossip about who was interested in what other boys and the latest styles in hair, clothes, and ninja equipment. To be honest, Tenten was quite relieved to see the boy sauntering toward them as it got closer to the time they were due back; she liked gossip as much as the next girl but there had to be a limit! Seeing the speculative look Sasuke was sending their way the brash Sakura suddenly became all coy and bashful, it was all the older girl could do to keep her amusement at the situation to a small grin.

"Tenten," he greeted seriously - no 'sempai' from him - "You graduated last year, but were not on a team. Instead you were an Academy assistant, something normally only done by chuunin. For what reason?"

*So that's it, his pride is offended because he has to be on a normal team while I got to do something solo?* "It wasn't so much like that... I did help out with weapons training sometimes, but more with the younger years than your class, and it was only a dozen or so times in all. More often I did civilian stuff for the Archives. It's because there wasn't a place on a team when I graduated, and I had to do something to earn money since I'm on my own. It wasn't like it was a privilege, it meant a lot of late nights and early mornings to get less pay than the lamest D-rank mission."

Eyes narrowed, the moody boy grunted acknowledgment and looked away.

Eager to be involved in a discussion her crush was actually participating in, Sakura gushed, "Mou, you two are so lucky, not having a curfew or anything ... My dad would flip out if I even thought of staying out at night."

The Uchiha's gaze snapped back to the girls, his usual cool mask positively glacial. He looked down at her coldly for a moment, restraining his temper, and her smile faltered even before he spoke. "Sakura... You're annoying. The pain of having a parent yell at you... you can't even compare it." Looking back at the Academy building, he concluded, "Come on. It's nearly time to return," then began walking away without waiting to see if they would follow.

"..." Sakura hung her head and shrunk in on herself. She hid behind her bangs, utterly crushed.

"..." Tenten was torn between compassion for the girl, and her own annoyance at Sakura's unintentionally cruel comment.

Finally, it was the younger girl who broke the awkward silence. "... Sorry, Tenten ..."

"It's... not totally unbearable," the brunette said softly. *Okay, she was a little insensitive, he didn't have to say it like THAT.* "Sasuke was a bit harsh, I think."

Sakura gave her a timid, apologetic smile. "I still spoke without thinking... I'm very sorry!"

"It's forgiven, team mate. Come on, he was right about it being time to go back."

After a three-hour wait that had Tenten's fingers itching to set up a trap or five as punishment, their new sensei appeared. He was whipcord thin, obviously trained for speed rather than pure strength, with messy silver-white hair, a mask over the nose and mouth, and his hitae-ate worn on a slant that covered the left eye completely. He'd brought them up to the roof rather than hang around any longer in the classroom, and perched on the railing while they found their own seats.

"Okay, let's begin with some introductions," he said. "Names, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies... that kind of thing."

"Why don't you go first, sensei," suggested Sakura. "Yeah, what a suspicious-looking guy," she muttered, obviously not intending the comment to be out loud.

He ignored that, replying, "Eh, me? My name is Hatake Kakashi... I have no desire to talk about my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future...? Hmm... Well, I have lots of hobbies..."

Tenten and Sakura traded glances, the pinkette muttering again, "So... all we learned was his name?"

"Now it's your turn," the jounin ordered. "From the right, with your hair up in buns, you first."

"My name is Tenten," the girl began, "and I don't use a clan name. I like learning to use new seals and weapons with Neshan-sensei, who taught me this past year until I could be placed with a normal team. I dislike traitors and people who think kunoichi can't be just as good as male ninja. My dream is to become a great kunoichi like the legendary Tsunade-hime. Hobbies... I already said weapons training, so ..." Her cheeks developed a light tint, but whatever (or more specifically, whoever) she was thinking of, she shook it off before finishing, "... reading historical romances."

*A girl who is serious about being a ninja,* thought Sasuke as the attention turned to him. *At least there's a chance she'll stay out of my way, and be able to take care of herself while I get things done. Good.* Aloud, he said, "I am Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike many things, and don't especially like anything. And... I don't want to use the word 'dream,' but I have an ambition. To rebuild my clan, and... to kill a certain man."

Tenten obviously had no idea how to respond to that, but Sakura had no such difficulty, both sides agreeing that the Uchiha was just sooo cool, saying such things so calmly. *Oh yeah, what a total hunk!* Inner Sakura drooled. Looking at him admiringly, Sakura imagined this as a new start, a chance to finally build their love without Ino-pig or any of the other girls interfering, and introduced herself. "I'm Haruno Sakura, the thing I like is... Well, the person I like is..." She didn't want to be too forward, and trailed off with a light blush.

"Umm, should I say my dream for the future...?" It might seem a little childish, her plan to stand out from the drab crowd by being a glamorous movie-star kunoichi, to take care of the goons but let her Uchiha hunk have the limelight by battling the main villain to rescue her in the nick of time, and then there'd be sunsets and blossoms in the wind and... "Oh my!" Sakura squealed, hiding her face until the rush of embarrassment faded.

Collecting herself, she remembered skipping a category. "The thing I dislike is people who interfere with others' hearts," she said with a sad grimace, thinking about how her friendship with Ino had turned into bitter arguments and rivalry, but perked up again, thinking of the photos and little mementos that filled the Sasuke Shelf in her room as she peeked at him again. "My hobby is..." She trailed off, yet again absorbed in inner dialogue.

*It seems girls of this age are more interested in romance... even the serious one,* Kakashi thought, more amused than irritated. A little time in the field would settle the obsessed one down. He smirked under the mask, anticipating the looks the genin would have when he told them about the test they'd face tomorrow.

* * *

><p>"Psst, Sakura!"<p>

"Eep!" The pink haired girl stifled a startled shriek in her fists and jumped backwards as Tenten appeared from under a bush beside her.

"Shh!" the older genin shushed. "I think I've got a way for all three of us to pass this test, but I'll need you to help."

Sakura blinked at her and replied, "Huh? But there's only two bells..."

"Right, but Kakashi-sensei said 'One bell is equal to one lunch' remember?" Tenten gave her team mate a significant look. "Two bells, on his belt, two lunches just sitting there on the post..."

Seeing the plan, Sakura asked, "Ah? But ... Why not just get one of them yourself and leave the hard way to Sasuke-kun and me?"

"Duh, he's a -jounin,-" the brunette explained, "and he's standing right there. Just sneaking past is impossible, and I've been training a whole year more than you two. I'm really good at ranged combat, and I've gotten good at escape and evasion, but only so-so at best in hand to hand, so I'd never get a bell that way either. But, Sasuke's supposed to be good at taijutsu, right? If you steal the lunches while Sasuke and I distract him, even if he only gets one, we can all still pass, and split the lunches into three or something."

"Got it!" the Haruno girl acknowledged. "But why can't I work with Sasuke-kun while you steal the bento?" she complained.

Just as willing to avoid close combat with a jounin, the older girl asked, "What's your best skill between stealth or taijutsu? I kind of assumed it wasn't taijutsu with your build and that skirt you can't kick well in, but I don't mind switching if you want to..."

Sakura REALLY didn't want to admit that she was only good at information collection and theory, even if stealth was her best field skill. "Um... No, okay," she agreed.

Brightening, Tenten chirped, "Okay! You get around to that side of the clearing while I find Sasuke, so you're ready to go when we attack." She scuttled out of sight again, utterly silent - the time spent working on her hidden pockets last night was well worth it, she judged, even if it had left her on the tired side today.

* * *

><p>"Psst, Sasuke!"<p>

The Uchiha boy made no move to acknowledge her as Tenten appeared from behind a tree. "Go away. You'll draw attention," he grumped.

"Now is that any way to talk to a team mate?" she scolded. "Listen, I've got a way for all three of us to pass. Remember -"

"No."

"Hey!" she complained, insulted.

"Fool, now he's walking this way." The boy gave her a scornful glance, saying, "I don't need anyone's help, I'll get a bell myself. If you want to be useful then stay here and distract Kakashi while I move." He slipped around a bush and was gone without further comment, leaving the clanless girl to gape at the utter lack of cooperation.

"Damn, talk about having a stick up your butt. Oh well, a distraction is a distraction I guess..." She settled the fingerless gloves more snugly on her hands, then produced half a dozen throwing knives arranged between the fingers of her right hand. They were much higher quality than the usual genin gear, longer and more aerodynamic than the standard kunai, and thanks to her time with Neshan-sensei the added size and weight that made most ninja forgo them in favor of the more versatile kunai wasn't a problem. Retrieving a dozen or so kunai from her holster in the other hand as well to shave off a few seconds once things got going, she took a deep breath and got ready to attack.

Kakashi knew well enough where all of his students had gone when he signaled them to begin, though the older girl's extra year of practice showed in that he wasn't too sure where she'd moved after first getting out of sight... except, of course, that first one and then the other of her team mates had rustled around and been talking to someone. Even he couldn't actually tell what they were saying from so far away, but that there were voices was plain enough... and gave just the faintest glimmer of the possibility that maybe, this group of genin would understand the real meaning of the exercise and become a team.

A hail of throwing knives and kunai burst out of the position he'd marked for the Uchiha as he approached, confirming the thought that she'd met up with him, and he wondered when Sakura would try closing her side of the pincer. Such a strategy wasn't bad for a bunch of rookies - probably the older girl's hand showing again, he'd heard from Yuuichiro that she'd been a tricky target for his team's exercises despite having a Hyuuga and a Hino to track her with the Byakugan and nin-birds. Most of his attention still on his book he snapped the other hand out to grab the first knife and deflect the others, then had to dodge unexpectedly instead when it vanished from his grip in a tiny puff of chakra smoke.

*Shuriken Kage Bunshin?* he wondered, *Or some kind of summon? Either way, it shouldn't be possible for a genin...* More throwing knives appeared, and yes, the first set that should have been on the ground around him were gone. Another flight of kunai followed but he was out of position to dodge, having taken a moment too long looking around for the missing blades. Two dozen razor-sharp knives thunked into his form with a spray of blood, even as the girl who'd thrown them finally appeared from the greenery.

Seeing what looked like such overwhelming success from her attack didn't fool Tenten, though she thought she might have heard a gasp from the side of the clearing Sakura was supposed to have headed for. She took the pole of her sun and moon fork in a firm grip and spun in place, whirling it around her body to ward off any retaliatory strike.

Sure enough, by the time she faced it again her 'dead' sensei had reverted into a 'Kawarimi' log, and the sharp, crescent moon blade on one end of her weapon was deflected away with a kunai as he appeared beside her. Skipping backward and setting herself for another exchange she called out, "Come on, Uchiha! Quit being a dick and help, already!"

Another moon-strike was deftly avoided, and her swipe with the large brass 'sun' sphere on the other end was caught in Kakashi's off hand, trapping her weapon and leaving the girl open for a slash with the kunai still in his right that slit her throat like a cabbage. Unconcerned, the jounin dropped the sun and moon fork and watched as the image of his student reverted to a log just as his own had. The way the weapon vanished as well a moment later, like the throwing knives before it, combined with the girl's mention of her interim sensei to explain how she'd managed that first surprise. *Hmm... kunai coming from two directions, this time... but Haruno still hasn't shown herself. Maa, well, perhaps it was too much to hope for with this group as well,* he thought. *She did make it a little bit fun, though, and there's still some time left before the alarm goes off for the other girl to get it together and work with her comrades...*

He blocked the incoming weapons with his kunai and another snatched out of the barrage from his left, but made no further move to track the genin when it ended, since they had to face him directly eventually to get the bells that were their objective.

Sasuke was a little impressed despite himself. Tenten had attracted Kakashi's attention to his position, true, but she'd ably covered his movement to a new one, had used an intriguing weapon jutsu and traded a few blows with the man without showing fear, and then used a kawarimi to escape that was flawless even to him - if he hadn't known that no jounin sensei would actually kill their students for a test he might have believed it. Even better, if they could wear Kakashi down a bit he was sure he could capture the bells... He'd even give one to Tenten, since she was actually being helpful in some small way, even if it was unnecessary.

He stopped and decided to move closer before throwing the last of his kunai and shuriken, to use them to cover his charge in to close range so he could take the bells. Seeing Kakashi reach for his book again when no further attacks were forthcoming the dark haired boy leapt out of the bushes, but settled into a watchful stance for a moment rather than immediately rush in like some hot headed idiot. *Kiba, for example. The fleabag and his mutt would probably have been knocked down and charged back in three times by now,* he thought smugly.

Tenten had taken advantage of the short break to set up some of her special kunai launcher traps and switch her right glove for the one that had the control seals for them etched into separate knuckle and fingertip plates instead of a single large plate on the back of the palm like her usual pair, though she kept the same one on her left hand. They took a lot of chakra for her to use and she'd had to train hard in control to channel it only to the seal she wanted out of the eight on the glove, but she'd found the ability to be her own ranged backup was a huge benefit well worth the effort expended, and even the loss of fingertip sensitivity on that hand.

Seeing Sasuke come out of cover at last she fished out another double handful of kunai to throw and moved so she'd be out of the firing path of her self-reloading traps. Too bad she hadn't had time to unseal a few kama or nunchaku, but as long as Sakura did her part it would probably be fine.

* * *

><p>*Right. It was just FINE.* Tenten felt like kicking herself for her own naivete once she regained consciousness and collected her scrambled wits, as a blushing Sakura offered one of the bento she'd successfully pilfered while Tenten and Sasuke were getting their asses kicked to the taciturn Uchiha.<p>

"It's okay Sasuke-kun, you can take one of the lunches... One bell equals one lunch, right?" the little pink... BIMBO simpered.

Tenten couldn't take any more. "Sakura! It was MY plan, remember! Why would you... AAARGH!"

"Keh," the boy snorted, arms folded sulkily across his chest as he sat beside the training pole. A few more bits of dirt flaked out of the seams of his shirt from when he'd been captured in an earth-type ninjutsu.

Shimmying a bit the brunette girl produced another of her vast array of hidden knives and cut the ropes holding her to the post. "I can't -believe- you two! ARGH! Just hurry up and finish the lecture Kakashi-san, I need to go tell Neshan-sensei it didn't work out."

With a lazy blink of his one eye the jounin watched her free herself and straighten her clothes. "Ah? Well... It would probably take a while to get rid of all your hidden blades, so I guess it's all right. More importantly... You three don't need to go back to the Academy."

Sakura goggled up at him, clutching her bento box like a talisman. "We don't... ? But even Sasuke only touched a bell... Was just getting the lunches really enough?" She beamed.

Kakashi did not. "No. You all... Should quit as ninjas."

Face crumpling, the pinkette stammered, "W-what?"

Spinning around from where she'd turned away in pique, Tenten demanded, "Why should I quit!"

Sasuke tensed and grit his teeth, then in a flash he'd leapt to his feet and was attacking Kakashi again, knuckles white as he held a kunai in a death-grip. Even faster the jounin had him disarmed and helpless on the ground, ignoring Sakura's protest at such rough treatment of her crush and the boy's own fruitless struggles. He casually sat on the downed genin as if he was nothing more than a handy cushion. "You have missed the point of this test, though Tenten almost had it," the jounin explained.

"The point of the test...?" Tenten thought back over it for a moment, then ground her teeth and glared at the other two genin again.

"That's right," Kakashi replied. "The answer to this test, that helps you pass it."

Hating the too-familiar disappointed looks from her sensei and the scornful glare of a girl she'd hoped might be a new friend, Sakura blurted, "So when are you going to tell us this answer!" Damn that look... Kakashi was looking at Sakura just like her sister or her mom when they lectured her about being more serious as a ninja.

"Teamwork," he said, simply. "The three of you almost had it, but..." Kakashi looked down at his captive, scowling face pressed against a tuft of grass. "Sasuke, you thought only of yourself, and wouldn't even listen to a possible plan. In battle, lone wolf actions will only cause trouble and the death of your comrades. Sakura, you thought only of Sasuke, and even when you carried out your part of a plan you abandoned your partner Tenten for Sasuke when his solo attempt failed." He gave her another hard look, before turning to the last of the genin. "Sorry, Tenten-san, you got a bad team, it seems, though you did well looking underneath the underneath. Maybe the Academy COULD make something out of you..."

"What! Kakashi-sensei, please!" Sakura pleaded. Her conscience bit her and she threw a guilty look at the other girl before adding, "At least Tenten...?"

*WHAT! No way, it's got to be a mind game. I've TAUGHT at the Academy, for crying out loud. Just as an assistant, but still.* Tenten held her glare for another second, then softened and let her eyes stop burning more holes in the Haruno's head. She looked at Kakashi and cajoled, "Come on, sensei, that's too cruel..."

The jounin rubbed the back of his head distractedly, then stood and let the Uchiha up. "Well... I guess if you all feel that way, I can give you another chance. But, this afternoon the test will be much harder. Since that was the rule, don't give Tenten any lunch, or you'll fail. I'll be back in half an hour... I have to go get one re-admission request form from the Academy." He vanished in a swirl of leaves and a tiny puff of chakra smoke.

Still incensed, Tenten flopped down to lean against the post and pulled out her seal scroll to retrieve some more serious weapons to use in the afternoon, so her chakra level would have as much time as possible to recover before combat began again. After a moment's hesitation, she also unsealed a thick pack of explosive tags, part of the big stockpile she'd built up in preparation for finally going into active field duty. *I held back from using them before in what was, ultimately, a training exercise, but my so-called team mates aren't the only ones I'm pissed at right now...* the steaming girl thought.

She was far too angry to get embarrassed at the loud, hollow growl her stomach made at the delicious smells of rice and fish and stir fried vegetables wafting off the lunches as the others began eating. "Should have known something was up when the jerk told us to skip breakfast," she grumbled, swallowing the saliva that seemed to want to drown her. She stripped the waxed paper wrapper off her bundle of tags and slipped them into an outside pocket for quick access.

Suddenly, she realized there was an open, only lightly picked over boxed lunch hovering tantalizingly in front of her. Following the arm that held it led to Sasuke, looking at her with an unreadable expression. "Here, take it," he grunted, turning away again.

Sakura's eyes fairly blazed a poisonous green until she realized what a golden opportunity it was to split her own lunch with him. Still - "But... Sensei just said..."

"I can't sense him anywhere nearby," the boy said, still hunched in a cool-looking broody pose. "We'll all need to be at full strength this afternoon, or it'll just be worse."

Accepting the undeniable logic and still guilty over being the one to profit from the other girl's planning and bruises, Sakura silently offered her own lunch as well with a shamed bow.

Suddenly, a huge cloud of smoke appeared, right in front of the horrified trio. A voice rang out, all but unrecognizable with rage. "YOU!"

Tenten choked on her mouthful of rice and veggies, while Sasuke was frozen, unable to even twitch as he heard it. *Oh no, nonono,* the last loyal Uchiha shouted in his mind.

"YOU ALL...!"

"No, no, he's going to fail us all or make us quit, why couldn't I just follow the rules!" Sakura panicked, babbling under her breath with a stricken look.

The smoke cleared with a swirl of wind, leaving Kakashi leaning over them, his one eye screwed up from an unseen smile. "Pass!"

"AAAaaah...?" The youngest Haruno's horrified shout trailed off and she repeated numbly, "We pass?"

"But you said..." Sasuke didn't exactly want to ARGUE with such good fortune, but it didn't make any SENSE!

"Heh..." For all the terrifying aura he'd just been feigning, happiness practically dripped off the man as he flopped down in front of them and stole a piece of battered fish out of one of the now forgotten lunches. Somehow it vanished from his hand without the mask ever seeming to move. "In the ninja world, there are many rules. Those who ignore them and fail their mission are considered trash, but... Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash! You're the first group who ignored my rules and fed their team mate. So, starting today, you'll be in my care as ninja of Konoha."

Heading home that evening, Sasuke stopped at a news stand, to pick up his usual manga and the weekly intelligence report. Heading to the cash register, a display of newly released novels caught his eye... A samurai in brightly painted armor was bowing and offering a bundle of carnations to some too-skinny noble woman in archaic robes. He dithered a minute, compared his usual expenses to the stipend he allowed himself from the Uchiha clan holdings... then reached out and took a copy, shuffling it into the stack of his other purchases.

"It's for my team mate," he growled at the cashier. He steadfastly ignored the faint burning sensation in the tips of his ears.

* * *

><p>Hyuuga Hinata swallowed convulsively and wrung her hands until the skin stung. What she was about to do... What she was thinking of... It was probably no good, but maybe... "Just the thought is so unlike me!" she whispered to herself, "but Naruto-kun..."<p>

*Naruto waved and gave her a big thumbs up before turning to leave the classroom. 'Ne, Hinata-san, get better soon, okay? Good luck!'*

*Looking out the window for one last glance, she saw that plain, ungraceful tomboy poor Naruto had to put up with having on his team had grabbed him by the arm. The awful girl made him carry her weight as they left the Academy and headed toward the market district ... Undoubtedly begging for presents! Unforgivable!*

Hinata blushed harder at the memory, as well as the discovery when she'd turned back to the front that she'd unconsciously channeled enough of a chakra aura to leave scorch marks on her desk, and everyone was staring.

Iruka-sensei had tried to make her feel better by praising her for generating such a powerful aura, as if such a terrible lapse in control was anything but another huge failure in her long, long list. She'd never even managed to tell Naruto-kun how much she admired him, and now some other girl...

She stilled her hands, and set her shoulders. "No," she said firmly to herself. "N-Naruto-kun told me to g-get better... He believed I-I can... In j-just one thing, I -won't- fail."

Her target's team had already finished their mission for the day and the others had left the training area they'd regrouped in, leaving only him there, still going through his taijutsu forms with a deadly grace. He'd know she was there, of course, but had so far ignored her. That wasn't a surprise, she was used to being insignificant.

Heart pounding in her chest, the shy girl stepped out from behind her screen of bushes with a quiet, "Please excuse the intrusion..."

The boy's back-length fall of sleek, blue-black hair trailed gracefully to a stop as he stilled and faced the girl, acknowledging her presence with his usual shuttered expression and a calm, formal greeting. "Hinata-sama. Is there something you require?"

Swallowing again as her throat tried to close up from nervousness, she pressed her hands into a supplicating gesture and asked, "Neji-niisan, please h-help me train! K-Kurenai-sensei is... an amazing person, but s-she can't help... w-with Jyuuken."

From the bushes on the other side of the clearing, Neji's team mates and sensei watched, unwilling to leave him with a hidden watcher even if he had dismissed her as no threat. Rei, a girl with long, dark hair and a short purple and red dress outfit, was from the Hino clan of shrine guardians and held a contract with ravens like the Inuzuka and their dogs. Her companions Ojike and Roubai were sure that the unfamiliar girl had the chakra reserves of at least a low chuunin, not the newbie genin she appeared.

Of course, some families tended to greater chakra, her other team mate Usagi's Tsukino clan being well known for it, among others, but the Hyuuga actually tended to be weaker in that area, making up the lack with all but inhumanly perfect control. Since they'd had a mission outside the village today her outfit was a dark grey leotard with navy blue and maroon for the pleated skirt, neckerchief, and trim, a stealthier, field version of her usual training uniform. "Eeeh!" she exclaimed, barely remembering to keep her voice down. "My Neji-kun has a sister!"

"Not so loud, Meatball-head!" Rei scolded the blond, her half-teasing insult referring to the traditional hairstyle the Tsukino girl wore. "And what do you mean, YOUR Neji-kun?"

"If you start one of your usual arguments, we'll certainly be found out," their sensei noted conversationally. An orphan who'd been fostered by the prestigious Gekko sword-masters, he forwent the usual jounin garb for a dull brown dogi and a back harness for his several swords.

"Anyway, they are both from the Leaf's noble Hyuuga clan, but they are not siblings. Though their fathers were twins, Hinata is from the Main House, while because his father was the second born, Neji is a member of the Branch House. Further, the relationship is not as good as with the Tsukino head and branch families, for example. Instead, the Main house has made a number of rules to give themselves advantage, causing hardship and resentment in Branch members like Neji, though he usually controls it well."

Usagi's eyes brimmed with tears at the thought of a family where her cousins would hate her enough to be as cold as Neji was being, and he could tell Rei was touched by the situation as well, though she buried it under her usual angry facade. "How do you know this kind of stuff, anyway?" the dark-haired girl demanded. "We barely got Neji to say his whole name at our introductions, and he never talks about himself."

Yuuichiro smirked lopsidedly from beneath his mop of unruly brown spikes. "I -am- an elite jounin sensei. It's my job to know things, especially things others want to keep hidden."

In the clearing, the younger Hyuuga had continued her appeal. "Father is- is busy with Hanabi-neechan, so... So p-pleaselendmeyourstrength!" By the end of the request she was blurting out the words in a rush to get them all out before her courage fled under his cold eyes.

Eyes that had hardened with every word she said, until they were like chips of flint, sharp and stern enough to strike sparks from steel, for all that they were as pale as her own. "Lend you my strength..." He bit the words out with a quiet viciousness that made his Main House cousin tremble where she stood before calming himself once more. "The strength of a person is determined when they are born, bound to them with the immutable chains of destiny. Hinata-sama... even if you graduated, and were accepted by your jounin sensei... you are not fit to be a ninja."

Ignoring his cousin's stricken look, Neji continued to declaim, "Your heart is too kind, you wish for harmony and avoid conflict. You agree with the will of others, and have no confidence in yourself. That feeling of inferiority... Anyone can see it on you, and that is why they do not believe in your ability. Why should they, when you do not believe in it yourself?"

One cheek twitched all but imperceptably, as if he was trying to force a smile but couldn't even remember how. His voice remained flat and even as he concluded, "Hinata-sama, if you remain on this course, it will only bring you greater pain. I can not give you the strength destiny assigned to me, any more than you can release the weakness that it has chained to you..." Though his voice was unchanged, a terrible spark of spite still burned behind the pale chakra-channeling membrane that hid his irises and pupils. "For the sake of yourself, and for all those who would feel the weight of your destiny of failure... It would be best if you quit as a ninja."

"H-how cruel..." Usagi whispered from behind her bush. Yuuichiro's face was set in a hard line, but he wouldn't interfere - if words alone could defeat the girl, her cousin would unfortunately be right. Rei sniffled, but tried to hide it by murmuring to the ravens sitting on her shoulders.

*Ne, Hinata, get better soon!*

*Neji-niisan is wrong... There is one person who believes in me, even though he only met me once.* Hinata bowed deeply. "N-neji-niisan, perhaps it's true that... That I can't change enough t-to be a strong ninja... But ... I will not lose to my rival ... I can become that strong, at least! I b-beg you ... to help me become that strong!"

"For the heiress of the Main House, to bow and beg before a member of the Branch," he declared scornfully. "Truly, you are a shameful person."

*Get better soon!*

Though her heart ached to be the focus of such harsh statements, the younger girl was determined to persevere. "F-f-for the person I admire... I can do ... Even this..." Delicately, she knelt and bowed until her short bangs brushed the grass of the clearing. "Ano... I-I beg you, help me to ch-change just... that much, brother..."

Neji felt the cold yet familiar certainty of his hatred for the Main House crack. *Was such a thing not what I dreamed of, to see the one who is weak, yet destined to high status by birth, humbled before me, who has talent but is chained to a fate of servitude?* It was his -ultimate- victory, so why did it seem like ashes in his mouth? Scowl deepening, he snapped, "Stand up, Hinata-sama! Even a failiure of the Hyuuga should not bow to anyone."

"I beg of you!"

Neji closed his eyes, and drew another calming breath. "Stand up, and take the Jyuuken's first stance. Even if your destiny is failure, mine is still to serve the whim of the Main House. I will help you as you ask, until you accept your destiny."

Hinata stood, and even his cynical heart couldn't feel contempt at the gratitude on her face, as he knew he should at the sight of such weakness. "Thank you, Neji-niisan. I kn-know that you ... W-won't fail to h-help me."

Yuuichiro tugged at his kunoichi students' shoulders, leading them away now that the crisis seemed to have passed. "I just knew my Neji-kun wasn't such a heartless person," the blonde sniffled through her now happy tears, at seeing estranged family members reconciled.

"What! It's totally obvious she just guilted him into it, Meatball-head! And -what- have I said about claiming Neji-kun for yourself!"

Yuuichiro sighed, and wondered for the hundredth time what evil spirit had possessed him to become an Elite and take on a genin team. *Oh, right, sibling rivalry. Hayate is still only Special Jounin, and has to deal with the whole Espionage/Counter-Espionage Division instead of three kids... Damn, he wins this round completely...*

* * *

><p>(Would you like to know more?)<p>

* * *

><p>Aside from the characters and setting borrowed from the Naruto manga by Kishimoto Masahi, Neji's team mates and sensei more loosely from Sailor Moon by Takeuchi Naoko, and Baksuta Neshan being the insert character of one of my co-conspirators in his own fic, borrowed to fill a cameo role in this one, this part was pretty much all me, ClassicDrogn aka dialNforNinja. And surprisingly quick to write it was, too - I find that I quite like this Tenten and just like the chapter title, I wanted to read what comes next.<p>

Alas, this does not mean I am, or have EVER written new material as fast as I'm posting these to FFn. I can feel an idea starting to percolate, to maybe get some material done on the next unfinished part... that means of things go really, really well, you might see another chapter (covering the first and second tests of the chuunin exams, that would be) by next summer once I get through the stuff already written. Look at the dates in the progress listings at the tops of these files, and you'll see how things go. In a word, glacially.

END OF LINE


	8. TXY: Wave Hello 1 of 3

**Make sure you check out the LoXY! art links in my profile!**

I notice that a lot of people seem to have missed or skipped Ch6 since it came out on the same days as Ch5. Maybe you should go back and check? This part was delayed because I was seriously considering a bit of a rewrite, and while I still haven't totally ruled it out I'm not going there for now.

txy06a_wave_hello

2007-12-13 - initial file created, notes transferred from DWMB saves  
>2008-05-09 - found NarutoShikenenai segment, pasted it in before it got lost again  
>2008-05-16 - Zabuza's motivation became clear, campfire scene<br>2008-05-20 - filled in from Konoha departure to campfire  
>2008-05-22 - watched the filler eps again for opponent's details<br>2008-05-23 - to Intensive Special Training! Man that was long.  
>2008-05-25 - omake, bridge arrival, attack on Tsunami<br>2008-05-27 - draft complete, edit/proofreading pass. This chapter still feels a little choppy, though.  
>2008-06-22 - a few more gremlins caught<br>2008-11-18 - fixed Zabuza's name - apparently, he's not a first peach (Momoichi) but a blood peach (Momochi.) Or something like that. Numerous other minor fixes.  
>2011-11-10 - chopped in thirds for FFn<p>

Somewhere in Lightning Country, a tall man looked at a small turtle and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Another 'urgent message'?" he asked rhetorically.

"Uh huh."

"And you got here in, what, six months?"

"Five and a half," the turtle said proudly. "I've been practicing."

"Merciful Amaterasu." He shook his head in disbelief. "Okay, what's up?"

The turtle looked quizzically at the sky, forcing the lean shinobi to cover a chortle by coughing into his fist. The turtle didn't say anything - he didn't have to - but there was a twinkle in his dark eyes.

After a moment, the turtle retracted one forepaw into it's shell and rooted around for a moment before producing a small scroll.

There was a rustle of paper as the scroll was unrolled. Then a whimper of disbelief: "Sandaime made him a jounin-sensei - again?"

A week or so later, Shikanenai looked up as a shadow fell across him. "Shikaku-niisan," he said in greeting.

The scarred ninja nodded and set down the bottle of sake and two cups. "I didn't know you were back in Konohagakure. You never come by anymore."

"Your wife keeps trying to set me up with her nieces," the younger of the two Nara cousins replied, pushing aside his empty bowls so that he could reach across the table for one of the cups.

Shikaku snorted. "Even Shikamaru will get married someday. If your sensei found someone then so will you."

Both flinched at the familiar but disturbing idea of Gai reproducing.

"Shikamaru is a genin now?" Shikanenai asked, filling his cup and his cousin's. "I'm surprised he can be bothered."

"Yes, he's teamed with Inoichi's daughter and Choza's boy - Ino-Shika-Cho again," Shikaku said proudly.

They drained their cups together.

"So, how is Sunagakure?"

"Still standing. Surprising, given the way they treat that Gaara kid. He'll level the place someday, and it couldn't happen to a nicer Kage."

* * *

><p>Lee jumped into a defensive posture as the tall Nara clansman appeared out of nowhere, the only warning of his presence being the growling grunt that preceded him.<p>

"So," the chuunin said bluntly. "You're the apprentice." He looked Lee up and down with a calculating look in his dark eyes. "They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, you know?"

Lee blinked, then beamed. "I admire Gai-sensei greatly," he admitted, eyes wide with sincerity. "I swear that I shall one day to be such a truly excellent ninja as he, or I shall carry an Akamichi matron around the village with both legs tied behind my back!"

Shikanenai closed his eyes and repressed a shiver. "Your motivation is... admirable," he managed to say between clenched teeth. Pulling a small, folded piece of paper from his pocket, he studied it. "Says here that you can't manage ninjutsu or genjutsu at all?"

"Yes!" Lee agreed proudly. "But I shall become a great ninja nonetheless or I shall -"

"Whoa, whoa," Shikanenai interrupted. "Don't get carried away or we'll have no time to train today."

Lee remained silent, almost vibrating with eagerness.

"Riiight..." the chuunin drawled, tucking the paper away. "Well, I gather you've had to face ninjutsu before and that your taijutsu was up to the task. How about genjutsu?"

"I -!" Lee broke off as Shikanenai shushed him. "I have great difficulty, Shikanenai-san."

The chuunin nodded. "Understandable. The usual counter to genjutsu being a form of genjutsu itself, I can see that you would be unable to counter in the conventional manner. Since your sensei will doubtless polish your defenses for ninjutsu to 'reflect the burning passion of your youth', I shall teach you to detect genjutsu." He smirked. "Once you know you're caught in one, escape is merely a matter of..." He'd usually say 'willpower', but edited the assertion for the audience: "the 'burning power of youth'."

"YOSH!" Lee shouted. "I will master Shikanenai-sempai's counters to genjutsu or I shall do a thousand push-ups, one-handed!"

* * *

><p>Legend of Explosive Youth Part Six<p>

Team Explosive Youth: Wave Hello! Resurgence of the Passionate Spirit!

* * *

><p>Shikenenai and Neshan's appearances written by their creators Drakensis and Valles, the the rest by ClassicDrogn aka dialNforNinja. The other characters and setting are Kishimoto's except for Rikou, who remains a team effort between myself and my co-conspirators.<p>

"Hmm... This looks like an assignment your team would be suited to, Gai-kun," the Hokage mused, looking over his list of C-rank requests. "The protection of a traveler. It came in late yesterday, but only rookies were left by that time, so the client is anxious to begin."

"Oh, oh, another escort mission!" Naruto, as he had been since the team fulfilled the rookie quota of D-rank missions, was immediately enthusiastic. "Do we get to safeguard a daimyo this time? Or, or a princess, whose love for the prince of a neighboring country will end a war with their wedding!"

Smiling fondly, Sarutobi said, "Not quite so grand, I'm afraid." He signaled to one of his assistants and requested, "That person, please come in now."

Rather than an elegantly attired lord or a vision of beauty, the grey bearded man who came through the door from the client lounge was unkempt, drunk enough that the smell of booze filled the room in an instant, and dressed in sturdy peasant's clothes with a rope of twisted rags for a headband to keep sweat out of his eyes. Even so, he was already carrying a heavy-looking travel pack.

He scanned the curious team of genin with a skeptical eye before pushing up his glasses and taking a heavy hit off his bottle, then grouched, "Eh? These are the super ninja that are supposed to protect me? They're a bunch of super runts! Especially the short one with..." He trailed off, and gave Team Explosive Youth another bleary glare, then shook himself before tossing the bottle into a corner.

"That's it," he declared, "I'm staying clear of this cheap Fire Country rotgut from now on. There's no way you all have goofy faces like I think I'm seeing..." He belched and forced himself up in the door frame, ignoring the blond's sputtering. "Fine then. You guys... I'm the Wave Country's super expert architect, Umida Tazuna! I expect you to provide me super protection until I get back to my country and complete the bridge. Anyway, let's hurry and begin."

They met up again at the east gate of Konoha, Tazuna chafing against even the small delay for the ninja to gather supplies for an extended mission, though he'd taken the opportunity to buy a conical straw hat to keep the sun off his balding head and looked over the nearby Fire Daimyo's Palace with a professional's appreciative eyes. He'd picked up some better quality hooch, too, but left it in his pack for now, figuring that he needed to cut back a bit on the road.

Naruto was the last to arrive as his apartment was the furthest away, though only by a matter of less than a minute. He was skipping and bouncing with excitement like a small child as he ran up, prompting another skeptical look from Tazuna. "Are you really a ninja? You're barely up to my waist!"

"Hey, hey!" Naruto protested. "I might still be short, but my springtime is in bloom and my flames of youth are as tall as a volcano, dattebayo!"

"... What the hell is that even supposed to mean, you super runt?"

"OI, OI! DON'T LOOK DOWN ON NINJA, OLD MAN! One day I'll gain the elite ninja title of Hokage, and bring a shining springtime to all of Fire Country! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, you'd better remember it, dattebayo!"

Still doubtful but unwilling to wait any longer before getting on the road, the architect shrugged it off and moved out, pushing his aging knees for the fastest walk they'd allow him to keep up.

The blond's bad moods seldom lasted long, and soon enough he was back to springing along like a clockwork ferret, humming random snatches of music and occasionally singing "Mission, mission... Mission to the sea!"

More amused than irritated, Tazuna finally asked, "What are you so excited about, anyway?"

Naruto skipped up beside their client and explained, "Well, I've only been to the sea once, and it was really cool! That was our first mission outside Konoha, so that was cool too. And, and, I got to learn how to summon frogs out of nothing, which was awesome! If it wasn't for those missing-nin suddenly appearing, it would have been the best ever, but even that was okay because we totally kicked ass!"

"Ah, yeah... Sounds... super-fun." Gai noticed the way the man faltered slightly at the mention of enemy ninja and narrowed his eyes, but said nothing as they continued along the road.

They were just getting ready to find a place to stop and eat lunch when one of Konoha's road patrols met them coming the other way, two of the team carrying large, shrouded bundles over their shoulders. The leader stopped to speak with Gai, a wiry man of medium height with his dark hair up in a pineapple ponytail and a Nara clan crest on his shoulder. "Maito-san," he greeted. "I had a talk with Shikenenai-kun the other day. He mentioned you'd sent a message that brought him back in town... it was nice to have the chance to chat."

Flashing the other jounin a quick Nice Guy Pose, Gai replied, "Indeed, it is always good to speak with family after a long absence!" More calmly, he nodded to their cargo. "Who...?"

"Tch, a couple of ex-Mist that were hiding under a genjutsu on the road up there. Really troublesome guys, the Demon Brothers... they had this chakra-pulse ninjutsu that was a real pain to break. Then, they used a poison tooth instead of being captured, so we're bringing them back for the Medical Division's body disposal group to study. Oh well, at least maybe my share of the bounty on their heads will get the wife off my case."

"I see," replied Gai, who did see. Specifically, he saw Tazuna going white as fresh rice paper and fishing around in his pack for a bottle, then taking a long slug out of it. He waited until the patrol had left again before quietly demanding, "Umida-san, perhaps you should tell us how you recognize the infamous Mist's Onikyoudai. This was supposed to be simple protection until you finished the bridge, but if there will be opposing ninja it becomes at least a B-rank. I have confidence in the youthful power of my subordinates... but they are still cute genin. If you lie about the mission, problems can occur."

The old man looked down, abashed, but replied, "It's true... this mission probably is outside your duties. It turns out, there's a super-dangerous man after my life... you've probably heard his name before. The wealthy shipping magnate, a man named Gatou."

All four of the Konoha-nin showed varying degrees of shock, from Lee's exaggerated gasp to Rikou's sweatdrop, Naruto's growl to Gai's fractional narrowing of the eyes. "Gatou," the jounin repeated, "From 'that' Gatou Group, that hides smuggling and drug dealing with the face of a respectable trading company?"

"Heh... I shouldn't be surprised that the Leaf had heard about such a person... he's a super-evil man, who uses money and rogue ninja to take over businesses and small countries alike. About a year ago, he set his sights on the Wave Country. With his wealth and violent gangs, he quickly took over the entire shipping industry and now has a monopoly on all traffic to the Wave. The only thing he has to fear is the completion of my bridge."

Lee pondered for a moment, then raised his hand as if asking to be called on. "OOH! I understand!" he shouted. "Because his heart is closed to the youthful spirit of Wave Country, he seeks to prevent the bridge being completed!"

"So that means, those Demon Brothers were hired by Gatou?" Rikou asked more than stated.

"But, but, how did you know that? And even if there were ninja after you, why not say so?" wondered Naruto, who hadn't quite followed his team mate's deductions yet.

Assuming both questions were meant for himself, Tazuna sighed, pushed up his little wire frame glasses, and pinched his nose. "He sent them around to threaten us, first, to stop working on the bridge. That's when I came to Konoha to hire you guys. As for the rest... Thanks to Gatou, the Wave Country is super-poor. Even the daimyo doesn't have any money left, let alone our small village. There's no way we could afford a super-expensive B-rank mission."

He pressed his eyes closed, a resigned look on his face. "Well, if you quit now, I'll definitely be killed. But... don't worry about it!" Eyes still squeezed shut as if not seeing his escort leaving would keep it from being real, he made one last appeal to try to keep them on his side despite the deception. Putting on a false front of high spirits, he added, "If I die, my cute grandson will just cry for a few days! Oh, and my daughter will live a sad, lonely life, hating Leaf ninja forever... but it won't be your fault, so it's not your problem at all!"

Quite without warning, he was lifted off his feet into a massive bear-hug, and hurriedly opened his eyes again to see the face of Maito Gai only inches from his own, cascades of manly tears streaking his cheeks at the thought of such a sad plight. "Have no fear, Umida-san!" he bellowed. "Team Explosive Youth will safeguard the springtime of Wave Country with our burning power!"

The three genin quickly joined into a group hug from behind and either side, as well, adding their own tearful reassurances to the mix.

*I... feel kind of bad... taking advantage of such super suckers...* Tazuna thought, sweatdropping heavily.

It was a few days later that they finally set foot in Wave Country itself, a gondolier who owed Tazuna's family a huge favor for saving his boat during a flood having ferried them across from the Fire Country coast hidden under the early morning mist. The huge pilings and deck of the bridge had loomed out of the fog like some titanic multi-legged sea creature fishing in the narrow strait between the two countries, prompting amazed comments from all three younger ninja though they were well enough used to keeping a low profile on missions by now that they remembered to keep their voices down.

Debt or not the boatman hurried them onto the dock and motored away as soon as possible, though he at least took a minute to wish Tazuna good luck.

"This is it!" the architect told everyone happily. "We're almost there, we should be able to reach my house by sunset!"

"Ah, it's that close?" Gai asked rhetorically. "Now that we're within the hateful Gatou's power, an attack will probably come today. All of us should be on our guard," he ordered quietly. "Naruto, perform your 'Ouki Gundan' technique to keep watch."

"Ossu!" the boy acknowledged, forming the hand seal for 'kage bunshin.' Instantly a dozen duplicates formed around him, then without further orders turned into squirrels, rabbits, foxes, and even a small deer before spreading out into the trees along the road.

Knowing the time limitation faced by the transformed bunshin Gai set out down the trail, Tazuna again moving at his best pace, eager to be home after the two week trip to Hidden Leaf. Suddenly, Naruto froze and there was the squeak and smoke puff of a disrupted kage bunshin from a nearby bush. Tension skyrocketed for a moment in the silence of the windless day, before Naruto laughed uneasily and concluded, "Eheheh... He just tripped and landed on a sharp stick..."

Sweating and trembling with nerves, Tazuna snapped, "Hey, you midget! Stop acting like a super moron!"

Another squeal and pop, and a muttered explanation of "... stuck in a bramble bush..." made the architect's teeth grind, and the third, with the sheepish admission, "...I dunno what that one was, he was just standing under a tree..." prompted a painful noogie and more shouting.

Gai was too focused on the ground where the last bunshin had vanished to pay close attention, however. *Those holes in the soil... senbon?* He'd felt a faint burst of killing intent at the same moment Naruto had paused that time.

Suddenly he jumped back, pulling the blond along by the collar of his jacket, as a huge blade whirled out of the underbrush and slammed into and halfway through the trunk of a nearby tree.

In a moment of shocked realization, Gai recognized the owner who appeared standing balanced on the long hilt. "Ah! The Hidden Mist's missing-nin... Momochi Zabuza!" He reached out and held back the two boys who'd tensed to attack, but Rikou darted by outside his reach.

"UNCLE ZABU!" she shouted happily, leaping up and tackle-hugging the man right off his feet, balance overwhelmed by ninety-some pounds of equipment and ecstatic teenage girl. Landing on his hands and the balls of his feet, the fearsome missing-nin was soon pulled back upright, the better for Rikou to glomp on like... well, like she usually did with Naruto, only with a completely different attitude. Getting the good look he'd been denied by the need to dodge those animal scouts at last, he recognized the Leaf jounin and cringed as the man came up to grab and shake his (one) free hand, babbling about youth power and long separated family.

He was starting to get a bit short of breath and wonder if this wasn't really an amazingly cunning capture ploy when the girl spotted Haku perching in the branches overhead, and (finally!) let go to face his partner. "You must be Hyaku-chan!" she declared. "Of course Mom heard about the child Uncle Zabu saved from abandonment and adopted... Such a gesture, to atone for his murder of one hundred by raising an orphan named 'Hundred!'"

Haku too fell prey to the terrible power of the tackle-hug, landing flat on the mossy ground with Rikou astraddle. "OH HYAKU-NEECHAN, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHOWING UNCLE ZABU THE PROPER WAY of... ah?"

The Leaf kunoichi blinked, sat up, and patted Haku's chest. "Eh?" she muttered. "Even I've got at least a handful..."

"I'm a boy," he told her. "Also, my name is Haku."

A Rikou-shaped cloud of smoke dissipated off his chest with a muffled "Eep," as she appeared ten feet away, face beet red.

Leaping back up to his sword and collecting his scattered poise, Zabuza tried to regain his customary air of menace but was all too aware that the tense atmosphere he took such pains in creating around his targets was completely destroyed - to the point that even he couldn't muster much in the way of killing intent. Not with such shining eyes looking up at him, wordlessly proclaiming his niece's love and trust. *How could anyone feel such things and call themselves a ninja?* he complained mentally, forcing a sneer under the bandages that covered his lower face. "Sorry, you kids," he growled, "but that old man, is mine."

Dancing happily around the small clearing, Rikou stopped as she linked hands with their client. "You hear that, Tazuna-san? Uncle Zabu is here to protect you too, for the dreams of all of Wave country! That Gatou snake's thugs won't have a chance now!"

Zabuza shared an incredulous look with Haku, and manfully resisted the urge to palm his face. "You misunderstand," he grated. "I'm not here to protect the geezer. My mission..." Here he vanished in a blur, the massive sword cutting the rest of the way through the tree truck as it sliced free, only to reappear pressed against the back of Tazuna's neck. "...is to kill him!"

Staring into his sea green, browless eyes over the terrified architect's shoulder, Rikou protested weakly, "...take it back." Her wide, dark eyes began to tremble as she repeated, "Uncle Zabu, take it back! My uncle Zabu would never do such a terrible, nasty thing... My uncle Zabu isn't the kind of evil person I always got teased for being related to... YOU TAKE IT BACK RIGHT NOW, UNCLE ZABU!"

So... shiny... He almost folded right then, under the trembling weight of those eyes, but it was the kunai that suddenly appeared in his niece's hand, pressed against the edge of his blade and amazingly, managing to push it away from the old man's neck that finally did it. "You take that back right now, or you're not my Uncle Zabu," she told him warningly. "Even before that, I'm a proud kunoichi of the Leaf, and I can't let you hurt the person I'm supposed to protect." Even with their difference in leverage, she had to have some serious strength to oppose him, an A-ranked elite.

It was a good thing he'd long ago fallen out of the habit of grinding his teeth, or Zabuza would have done serious damage to his tongue with their filed-sharp points. "Kids wearing headbands and playing at being ninja," he growled in frustration, slinging the massive zanbatou into the harness across his back.

"HEY! HEY!" Naruto shouted, before he could rant any more. "Rikou-chan is an excellent ninja!" the blond asserted.

"YOSH!" Lee agreed. "The power of her springtime of youth is truly amazing!"

Gai too favored the infamous missing-nin with a subdued (for him, meaning it only went a third of the way across his face) smile and reminded him, "It did overcome even you, you know."

"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto enthused. "But now everything's okay and we'll get to have a big party to welcome you to the Leaf! DATTEBAYO! PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY!"

Between the shouting, the arguing, the celebrating and the old civilian's heavy drinking as he tried to either make sense of the sudden turn-around or get so sloshed he didn't care, they were still on the wrong side of the lake by the time night fell.

Late that night, Zabuza and Gai stared silently across the campfire into each others' eyes. The genin had climbed into their bed rolls hours before, and even Tazuna had finally exceeded his tolerance and drank himself into unconsciousness. Haku and some of the Leaf jounin's summoned turtles were keeping watch - on each other as much as the surroundings, of course - so it was just the two men.

"The real reason?" Gai asked, at length.

The Demon of the Bloody Mist had unwrapped his bandages when they made camp to eat the evening meal - his own trail rations, of course, trust between even nominally allied ninja was a scarce commodity let alone in the kind of bizarre semi-truce they'd somehow found themselves in.

The missing-nin flashed sharpened teeth in a predator's grin at his brother-in-law and rumbled, "Want to make sure I'm not just insinuating myself into the group, to strike from behind as I choose? Heh, maybe I am..." He smiled more widely still at the lack of reaction to the teasing threat, then became serious again. "I fight for my own ideals, and that will never change. A ninja is a tool, made to kill... But all tools must have a hand to wield them, and killing must have a reason, even if it is only for a test, or known to a ninja's client. Even more than that..."

He reached out to stroke the spine of his massive sword, leaning against the log serving as his seat. A faint pulse of chakra twinged in Gai's senses and he had the oddest impression that the infamous zanbatou was purring, though no actual sound or vibration manifested.

"... A ninja is no simple blade, a cheap kunai to be thrown and forgotten. Shinobi is a tool like my Kubikiri Houcho, a fearsome sword but one that can turn in the hand of an unworthy user and strike them a mortal blow." Zabuza's fingers played along the smooth metal for long seconds. "How is my big sister, these days?" he asked, but gave no time to respond before adding, "I heard from her, you know, just before I made my attempt on the Mizukage. She said that her daughter Rikou had entered the Leaf's Ninja Academy ... She was very proud."

He looked up at Gai's eyes again, before continuing. "I had a plan to deal with that corrupt fool of a Mizukage, but due to certain circumstances I had to act before it was fully prepared, and so it failed. Yet even in exile, I have counted myself a success... How good is the intelligence division of your peace-loving Village Hidden in Leaves? Did they ever find out the reasons why I acted prematurely? Would they even have told you, married to an ex-Mist-nin, one who formally retired to avoid being declared outlaw and could legally return to the Water Country at any time?"

Gai simply quirked one of his abundant eyebrows at the man on the other side of the flames. Zabuza chuckled, hardly needing to be told that any details about Konoha's Espionage/Counter-Espionage Division would be among the least likely things he'd be hearing tonight.

"The Village Hidden in Mist's spies are very good, especially within the village itself. If they weren't, the Mizukage would have had a dagger in his back long ago courtesy of one clan head or another. When I heard from Keiunko... The seal of that letter had been opened. The Mist's spymaster didn't know his assistant was on my payroll, so when the Hunter-nin were ordered to bring her head and the heads of the Leaf-nin who'd turned her and their child, soon to begin training as a soldier who might be used against the Mist, -that- was when I acted."

Shaken out of his professional calm by the coldly delivered threat his family had faced without ever even knowing it, Gai took on a stricken look. Certainly they'd known his wife's old superiors had been less than pleased with her change of allegiance, even if their countries were supposedly at peace and she had held true to her oaths to end her ninja career and keep what secrets she knew. As a lowly chuunin only recently promoted there weren't many to begin with, and it had seemed unlikely that any serious action would be taken; the more so as time passed and nothing had come of it beyond a few sternly worded diplomatic exchanges. Of course, if two of the major countries were unlikely to go to war over a single retired chuunin, they would be no more likely to do so over her death, or even her jounin husband and their child.

"Haku impersonated the captain of the hunter-nin squad assigned the duty and took his place long enough to delay them until I could strike... And even when I failed, they were reassigned to chase me instead of going after a meaningless target only chosen because the Mizukage needed to make an example of someone to remind the clans who was in charge. -Unfortunately- they had bad luck in the pursuit, and that failure weakened the Mizukage's influence so now it's basically the Council that runs the Mist... Not that those old farts are much of an improvement," he sneered sarcastically.

"Hm, bad luck? Your youthful companion Haku-san perhaps led them astray to make an escape?" the Green Beast suggested, brightening visibly as his thoughts turned back toward more positive, and familiar, channels.

"Escape? Oh no, none of them escaped. The bad luck was, they found me!" That predator's grin was back and dripping with remembered malice, as the man and his zanbatou both quivered for an instant like the string of a drawn bow. The moment passed, and the two jounin relaxed again as Zabuza wrapped up his explanation.

"Ninja are tools made to kill, to bring their village, their country, and the ones who live in it money, power, and the respect of other countries. That is the ideal for which I have always fought, though now I must choose the hand as well as being the weapon, and can bring benefit only to myself and Haku. Just because Keiunko-oneesan found a life in another country, another village... I will not abandon her. Just because some walking -scum- has money to buy the death of a man, does not mean there is enough money in the world to buy the death of my cute niece, or my sister's beloved husband!"

Again, between ninja of their caliber it went without saying - the Leaf-nin would defend the client to the last drop of blood. Holding back impassioned cries only out of respect for his sleeping students nearby, Gai's cheeks still flowed with manly tears as he surged to his feet. Zabuza was up and in a guard stance with his sword just as fast, warning, "Death is one thing, but if you try to hug me, I WILL cut off your arms, Maito Gai."

continued in part B


	9. TXY: Wave Hello 2 of 3

txy06b_wave_hello

Unfortunately, there was no good division point for the last two thirds of the chapter, so while not quite a cliffhanger, this middle section ends kind of awkwardly. Sorry, but at least you only have to wait for tomorrow to get the next part.

2011-10-11 - chopped in thirds for FFn

continued from part A

Haku had slipped away when his watch was through, sent to retrieve his and Zabuza's personal gear from the old Mist outpost they'd laired up in since Gatou was well aware of its location and it would be easier if they didn't face him. The shark's grin as the renegade jounin gave the instructions left little doubt as to who he meant it would be easier for, and given the man's status as a drug kingpin Gai was half tempted to argue for setting a trap there and letting the magnate fall into it.

Blood-thirstiness for its own sake was too alien to his mindset, however, and without at least the agreement of the local daimyo it would be possible for a man of such wealth to bribe his way out of legal trouble if captured. Beyond that, it was always unwise for a ninja to assassinate such an influential figure without even a mission contract to provide them with their village's and country's protection from reprisal.

In the end, the four Leaf-nin, two ex-Mist, and lone architect all retired to Tazuna's house, the arrival of two putative enemies with the group almost sending poor Tsunami into a faint. She'd been delivering lunches to the bridge crew when the missing nin appeared to make their first threats, and been frozen with the terror of their unleashed killing intent.

The next morning was calmer, Tsunami having resolved to face her father's guests like a proper hostess and the ninja having risen early for their usual training routines before breakfast, then gathering in the sitting room to discuss the situation. "Those Demon Brothers were the only other ninja Gatou had around here in the Wave," Zabuza told Gai. "With those two gone and our unique situation, it'll be at least a week before Gatou can get more, since none of the major villages will deal with him, even Mist... and from watching your kids this morning, the rest of his thugs combined would have only an even chance against any one of them."

The Leaf jounin gave a glinty smile at the recognition for his students' hot-blooded youthful power, but soon enough frowned as he considered matters. "The truth is, we have faced Gatou's men before," he admitted after a few seconds. "Within Fire Country he hides his hand behind proxies and gangs, but those Two Gees we became involved with six months ago were actually working for him."

Zabuza snorted in amusement. "That was you guys? Hah! The shriveled bug was still bitching about that mess last week!"

"Zabuza-sama...?" Haku interjected.

"Don't concern yourself with the secrets of that money-grubbing swine, Haku... we're through with him," he told his apprentice. Facing Gai again he continued, "It was something about how it took this long to get anything out of the ruins of his operation, the money he lost with the smuggling ring broken up, and on top of that the daimyo rooting out his protection rackets and corrupt officials in the Kirika area. It had nothing to do with me, so I didn't care about the details."

Gai's mustache twitched as he thought everything over one more time, then he rose and favored the group with a Nice Guy Pose. "OKAY!" he enthused. "We have just one week to prepare for treacherous Gatou's new ninja, who are certain to be even more terribly strong. That means, everyone's training must go to one hundred percent! Today is Rikou's turn for one-on-one instruction, so Lee, Naruto, continue your usual solo drills. Naruto, go for it with that scroll Jiraya-sama left you about the use of your captured chakra weapon also!"

The tall, lithe girl gave the foxy boy's arm one last squeeze before disentangling herself and checking that her equipment was all present and secure, but before they could split up Tsunami cautiously poked her head into the room again. "Ah, excuse me, everyone," she said, keeping a wary eye on the eyebrowless nukenin. "I made some bento to take with you for the afternoon."

"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto enthused, hopping to his feet with his usual energy. "Tsunami-oneechan's lunches will power our training with her passionate, youthful spirit cooked into every bite!"

The twenty nine year old single mom blushed at the compliment, so obviously sincere despite its flowery language. "It's nothing like that, just some mochi and tempura fish," she demurred.

Knowing her team mates' hearts (and occasional lapses in brains, at least when it came to explaining clearly) Rikou told the older woman, "It's not the materials you start with that matter, it's the effort put into their final form. Whether the result is a ball of rice, or a shinobi... the principle is the same. We'll make sure to work hard and become excellent ninja like your excellent food Tsunami-san. That's the meaning of our nindo!"

Zabuza caught Haku's eye with a 'can you believe this shit' glance, which was returned with an 'I can't believe this shit either' shrug. He stifled a sigh but consoled himself that he might still have a chance at turning his niece into a more serious ninja... his sister had been fine until that mission to the Leaf, was the Maito power really -that- strong? A faint shudder rippled through his form involuntarily as he tuned back in to the conversation. Tsunami was getting redder and redder at being the center of attention, while Gai's mini-clone had just said something about doing one hundred push ups for each mochi in his bento to engrave their spirit on his muscles, which made no sense at all.

"Yeah, yeah! the blond Leaf-nin was shouting again. "We'll train with our full power to be ready in a week! Sounds like fun, dattebayo!"

The sound of the outside door sliding shut cut into the ongoing commotion as it was slammed against the frame. "'Fun'... that's not it!" The boy who'd entered couldn't have been more than half Naruto's age, so small he had to climb on his hands and knees to get up the step from the entryway as he shed his sandals to come into the room.

Tazuna greeted him with a happy shout and wide arms, while Tsunami welcomed the distraction from well meant but embarrassingly overdone praise. "Inari, come greet these people properly," she scolded lightly. "They are ninja who protected Grandpa... and, er..." She trailed off uncertainly, remembering the two former Mist-nin, and was not at all reassured by the amused smirk when she glanced over a shoulder at the infamous swordsman.

Ignoring that, the little boy took only a short look before pointing and saying, "Mom, they're gonna die."

His finger happened to aim most closely for Lee, who gasped and clutched at his chest as if it had fired some deadly ninjutsu into him. "Such lack of spirit in one so young! Gai-sensei... this child... This poor child...!"

"You don't have to say it, Lee!" his sensei replied, laying a calming hand on the genin's shoulder. His eyes glistened sadly at the sight of such a tiny bud crushed before even reaching the blossom of spring.

"Oh, Gai-sensei!" Lee sobbed.

"I know, Lee!" The tears were beginning to flow, now.

"SHUT UP YOU MORONS!" Inari yelled at them. "Shouting and crying like that... you act like you're younger than me! There's no way you can win against Gatou. The weak just die, when someone strong appears!"

Shocked silence filled the room at his poutburst, until Zabuza spoke up. "Heh... you're right about one thing, brat. When faced with the strong, the weak die... the thing is, in this situation it's that sniveling worm Gatou who is weak!"

It was Inari's turn for a shocked silence, until a single tear forced its way out of his eye. "WHAT ARE YOU, STUPID!" he yelled, throwing a lid of anger over his heart. "Do you think you're some kind of hero! There's no such thing as heroes! Gatou has money, and a thousand men... if you don't want to die, you should just leave!" He was the one who turned and fled, however, pounding up the stairs to the bedrooms on the upper floor.

Everything was silent again for a few seconds... until Zabuza broke out in wild guffaws at the idea of being called a hero.

By the time his uncharacteristic mirth had faded the Leaf-nin had all left to do some more of their scarily intense training regimens. It had been seeing the routines they put themselves through just to start the day before breakfast that had finally convinced him that despite their bizarre attitudes his niece, brother in law, and the man's other students were, if not exactly ninja by his definition, still dangerously competent warriors. They were just genin, yet even the slowest still had a speed that could make even Haku take notice, and from their comments that was despite wearing weights.

Looking around as he regained his composure Zabuza saw his apprentice sitting quietly, watching him with a smile and warm, shining eyes. "What is it?" he demanded gruffly.

The effeminate boy's smile widened further and his eyes curved into little arcs as he replied, "I'm glad to see Zabuza-sama so happy, to be united with family."

"I'd have thought you weren't much for the idea of family," the swordsman prodded.

Haku's smile wavered for a moment, but then he shook his head and replied, "If my family had been happy, I would not have met Zabuza-sama, but Zabuza-sama is the only family I need."

The jounin stared for a full minute before stating, "That was really sappy. I'm going to leave now, before you start gushing about youth power."

It was the blond boy he was watching at the moment, the team ninjutsu specialist if the fire-type seal combinations he'd been practicing for speed were any guide. It was what else he was doing that was the amazing part - not because he was water walking, which any half-competent punk could manage if they tried, but that he was also using chakra to make a single leaf cling to each of his knees and elbows and over the symbol of his hitae-ate at the same time. It was like the other boy's marathon sessions of physical training and kata applied to chakra control... which made sense when he thought about it, at least as much as any of what these crazy Leaf-nin did.

After a while Naruto stopped the sealing practice and unslung the chakra channeling chopper board he'd taken as a prize on their first C-rank mission. Getting it to hover and let him ride around on it had been easy, figuring out how it had been used as a weapon in its folded form was less so. It did have a physical edge, after a fashion, but it wasn't really sharp at all, and the fact that at four and a half feet it was almost as long as he was tall and had only limited cutouts to grip by made it awkward.

Jiraya had given him a scroll listing some techniques the Toad Hermit knew for using similar weapons, but so far the only one he'd managed was to charge some chakra into it, letting the forged-in seals shape it into a strip of energy that ran along the blade and made it fiendishly sharp. Maintaining that chakra while doing anything else was harder, hence his extreme chakra control work, but worse than that was that he didn't really know any effective moves to use with a blade of that shape, and neither, it seemed, did anyone else in Konoha. He could flail around with it, and it was very handy for cutting through brush and gathering firewood, but without an effective style he wouldn't dare try to use the thing in a battle.

Of course, as any Maito or student of one could tell you, the key to excellence in anything was hard work, and Naruto was determined to become excellent in this as well, even if he had to make up a style from scratch.

So, Naruto worked hard. He'd trained his finger strength, until the single hand that would comfortably fit in the grip didn't threaten to have the heavy metal chopper fly out of it with every swing or impact. He trained his arms, so moving it rapidly around him no longer tired them out and left his joints aching after only an hour or two of practice. He even trained in quickly switching off from one to the other hand, since it had a grip on either end and working only on a 'strong side' meant leaving a 'weak side' to be exploited.

But... he still hadn't gotten very far in actually using the blade. He could slash with it, but he could tell they were awkward and weak. He could parry blows with it, but the rapid movement needed would often leave him off balance. The only thing he really felt confident he could do with it was blocking, because for that it was almost like using a jo stick, especially with the ability to use a two-handed grip on both ends and catch things in the middle - even better, in fact, since it had a notch to keep them from sliding off toward one or the other end.

It was this less than proficient display that finally drew the former Mist-nin from his hidden observation. "Get over here, runt," he ordered, "and drop the leaves, I don't have time for less than your full attention."

"EEEH! Zabuza-aniki! Where did you come from?"

"Don't call me 'brother,' pipsqueak, as far as you're concerned I'm 'Zabusa-san,' got it? I don't like you, I don't care about your nindo, and I expect you'll be killed from behind some day while ranting about the power of youth if your enemies aren't all laughing too hard to hold a kunai, but it offends me as a swordsman to see you swinging a blade around with no skill. So shut up and pay attention, because I'm going to teach you the Kiri no Tenken style, or as much of it as can be beaten into your thick head in seven days."

Speechless, Naruto could only look at the so-called Devil of the Mist with shining eyes. Alas, the moment didn't last. "YEAH! YEAH! I'LL LEARN WHAT ZABUZA-ANIKI HAS TO TEACH ABOUT HUGE-ASS SWORDS WITH ALL THE SPIRIT OF MY YOUTH! FULL POWER, DATTEBAYO!"

There was a blur of speed, ending with Kubikiri Houcho striking a glancing blow off the boy's blond head. "I told you to shut up," the former Mist-nin said. He readjusted himself to hold the massive zanbatou with his hands low and the blade angled to one side in front of his body. "This is the first stance, a low guard. Without a long hilt to grip, just brace your second hand against the heel of your first. No, legs further apart, so you have a wide base for stability."

"In this position, the blade can be quickly slashed to either side or in front to feint or parry, turned sideways to block a straight thrust, or raised along its length to drop down in a powerful blow. The ideal strike begins with it held as far away from your body as possible and pulled inward just before the hit, to increase the speed as it rotates around your base. Do that now against your practice log, up and then down! Every blow is a killing blow with the Swords of Heaven, if that stump was a man you just cut him in half from one shoulder to the other hip. Now do it again, brat!"

The genin of Team Explosive Youth generally spent around fourteen hours a day in various forms of training, between the pre-breakfast warm up and spar, solo routines, one on one instruction or Self Rule augmented D-rank missions in the morning, group work in the afternoon, and an evening spar and cool down without their weights, to remain in practice moving with the altered balance in that condition. Part of their individual routines and group work generally included long runs, during which they'd do anything they wanted in town, running in place as necessary to talk with shopkeepers or friends. (Gai himself made use of advanced meditation techniques to reduce his need for sleep and train even more than that.)

During the 'safe' week they spent in Wave country, Naruto's routine was almost entirely taken over by Zabusa and sword work, keeping him so busy he barely had time or energy to hear about how Gai was doing with Rikou, or that Haku had by Gai's request and with his own sensei's assent begun speed drills with Lee. Overheard snatches of conversation gave him the idea that Wave was even poorer than the somewhat run down furnishings of Tazuna's home, one of the most prosperous in the area, would indicate, and that even with the ninja who'd appeared to threaten them now dead or on the side of the architect's protectors the work crew for the bridge kept shrinking day by day. Even so, there was only the last span left to complete by the end of that time.

The demon vessel couldn't help but be concerned about Inari, as well, but Lee seemed to have made a goal of reigniting the fire of the younger boy's spirit, and Naruto had full confidence in the power of his friend's youth to achieve shining victory as a genius of hard work. The steadily increasing tension had apparently brought that situation to a head just after lunch on the last day of the week, but that day had been the blond's "final exam," a running battle of only speed and blades that had continued until he literally collapsed sometime after dark. He'd survived until sunset, though, so the former Mist jounin grudgingly gave him a passing mark, and even dragged the unconscious boy back to Tazuna's house instead of leaving him in the shady glen where he fell.

Lee had been brought back in only slightly better condition by Haku as well, the kind hearted boy having finally been wheedled into using his ultimate speed technique for the Proud Green Beast to test himself against. Haku had concocted a medicinal balm for the two Leaf genin's minor wounds, one that in Tazuna's words was "so smelly it had to be super effective."

Despite Gai's mania for physical conditioning, or perhaps because of it, he was well aware of the difference between the kind of exhaustion that just calls for a more gradual warm up the next day and the kind that requires extra recovery time, so by the time the two boys woke only Tsunami and Inari remained in the house.

They rushed out after hearing that Gai had left a message for them to meet him at the construction site, barely taking time to dress before bounding out the door. As they leapt between the trees, however, Naruto's nose twitched and he paused to look around, Lee coming to a stop on the next branch to see what had attracted the blond's attention. On the ground below they could see the signs of a quick struggle, and not far away the corpse of a boar covered in slashes from a sword or large knife. Foot prints led out of the bloody mud around it back the way they'd come.

A quick glance between the boys was all they needed to decide what to do, both nodding firmly before springing back toward the house to check on their plucky hostess and her son. Lee was a moment behind his team mate after a quick hop down to the ground and back.

Tazuna and the ninja had arrived at the bridge, Zabusa having tagged along to talk with his niece after spending most of his time the preceding week beating the rudiments of swordsmanship into her team mate's head, and Haku because where the jounin went, he followed. They'd almost reached the unfinished end, Gai casting a surreptitious look at his brother in law which was returned with the most subtle of nods. Before either could act to dispel the genjutsu, however, it was dropped, revealing the five men who'd stuck with the work surrounded by at least ten times as many rough looking thugs. Leading his party, the architect staggered back half a step, incredulously shouting, "Wha- What is this!"

A short, well dressed man with tiny round sunglasses, a permanent sneer and greying, wildly over-fluffed hair barked scorn filled laughter from beyond the mob, a quartet of figures in cloaks and wide straw hats at his side.

Cutting off his dark amusement, the man called out, "Zabuza you bastard! Do you know how much money you've cost me? Hiring a full team from Hidden Rain just to punish you and do the job you were hired for... even a devil is supposed to keep a contract! Heheheh... Of course, you were never going to get paid as I said, only in the steel blades of my men; perhaps you figured that out!"

Stepping a pace to one side so he'd have room to fight, the former Mist-nin replied with some trash talk of his own. "Your history hiring nukenin and then disposing of them isn't unknown, it's true... You just never dared to reach as high as me. The only reason I accepted your offer in the first place... was that it seemed like it might be fun to kill your whole army when you tried the double-cross!"

Gatou's mocking sneer turned into a rictus of rage, flushed red enough to make a try for the grimacing mask of a devil himself. "I'll show you that you can't just do as you please... Even one of the Mist's Seven Swords. You see... This ninja, has an even more legendary sword! Aoi! Kill these bastards and bring me their heads!"

At this, the leader of the cloaked squad looked up, face no longer hidden below the wide woven hat. His mouth was curled into a smile, but the cruel set of the blue-green eyes above was as cold and flat as the treacherous still water in the lee of an iceberg. "As you command, Gatou-san."

The direction of the voice was wrong, however, and even as the ninja reacted a hail of senbon flashed down out of the sky. Zabusa drew Kubikiri Houcho and blocked the path to his body with the width of its massive blade, while Haku grabbed Rikou and jumped away. Gai pitched Tazuna clear before getting out from under the piercing metal rain himself. "A second genjutsu!" he gasped, before forming a seal and producing a heavy chakra pulse to dispel the illusory reality. Slowed by the need to protect the client, he was unable to avoid one of the needles, and a thin line of blood welled from a scratch on his cheek.

Seeing this, the other members of the enemy squad threw off their cloaks, revealing pale canvas body suits, rebreather masks, and Hidden Rain forehead protectors. They all also wore a bandage wrapped around their eyes, one with holes cut in it like a mask, another with just one, and the third obviously having some form of special vision as his was completely intact. "Unlucky," the two-eyes Rain-nin said, apparently the leader among the trio. "That was Aoi-sensei's 'Jou Rasenbou'... to only get one hit!"

Catching his bamboo umbrella and landing from the leap, the Rain jounin's smile grew wide and cruel. "True... but that is my special 'Toxic Rain' venom. No matter how big your body is, in just a few minutes it's quite fatal." Just to make the defending team's day complete, he was wearing a suit of heavy grey cloth crisscrossed by dark blue conduits that fed into a grapple launcher on one arm and a blue and white yin-yang on the opposite shoulder, a style that was all too familiar to Gai and Rikou.

As Lee and Naruto cleared the tree line, they could see several people standing on the deck around Tazuna's house. Two men with katana, Tsunami being chivvied along between them with her hands bound, and at the other end-

"HOLD IT!" Inari shouted, running out of the house. Ignoring the woman's terrified protests he screamed, "You... get away from my mom!" He bellowed wordlessly and charged.

"Geeze, stupid kid," the bare chested mercenary said, as the pair stepped forward to make room to swing their swords. "Makes me want to-"

"Cut him, right?" his partner asked sarcastically, freeing his own blade.

"Sure," the first replied, an evil glint in his one eye.

Frozen in place, Tsunami could only scream, "No... INARI!" unable to even turn her head as her little boy charged blindly into the two samurai's swings, the blades striking home with a meaty squelch.

It wasn't her only child that landed in three pieces on the wooden planks, however, but a boar, most of its blood already drained into the forest soil so it made relatively minimal mess.

"What...? The replacement technique?" the mercenary with the crumpled hat gasped.

"Sorry about being late," Naruto apologized, as he sliced the rope around Tsunami's wrists. Eyes tearing up in relief, she sank to her knees and grabbed the blond in a crushing hug.

"...but heroes usually arrive at the last second," his team mate continued, setting Inari back on his feet beside the two. His mother switched for just a moment to the second genin before grabbing her son and cradling him in her arms.

"Lee..." the small boy said, wonderingly.

"Great job, Inari!" the bushy-browed genin told him, with a glinting smile and thumbs up. "Your springtime of youth has finally been reborn! Thanks to your distraction, we were able to save Tsunami-san."

"How touching," the one-eyed samurai sneered. "It looks like two of the loser-nin Tazuna hired came out." Resetting their stances, the two mercenaries charged in, easily dodging the pair of shuriken thrown by the two ninja. "As if that would work against us!" he taunted, just as the throwing stars turned into Naruto bunshin behind them. Two quick kicks later both of Gatou's men were unconscious.

"I'm so glad you came back," Tsunami gushed tearfully, "but... why did you bring the boar?"

Not sure himself, Naruto also looked curiously at Lee, who returned the woman's gaze seriously. "It was no extra trouble," he began, "and after seeing the condition of the village market, it seemed shameful to allow the meat to go to waste. But more importantly..." The Proud Green Beast shifted his attention to the boy still in his mother's arms. "Inari-san, I should not have spoken to you in such a harsh way, yesterday," he apologized. "Even the most youthful spirit can fall under the winter of circumstances, but with a passionate heart the explosion of spring will always return! Your youth is strong!"

Dazzled by the glint of sunlight from Lee's smile, the youngster just stared up at him for a few seconds, eyes shimmering, until tears began to cascade down his cheeks. "Oh... Lee!" he sniffled, shaking loose from his mother to grab the older boy's waist in a hug.

"Inari!" the genin responded while scruffling the boy's hair affectionately, his own tears once again flowing like waterfalls.

"Lee!"

"Inari!"

Naruto stood behind Tsunami with his hands on her shoulders, both also moved by the display of burning spirit.

A few soggy minutes later the three boys were inspecting the job Naruto's bunshin had done tying up the samurai, while Tsunami had retrieved her sharp kitchen knife to skin and quarter the animal carcass. "Well..." the blond said, after concluding that the massive bundle of ropes was probably overkill even if they'd been jounin, "If they attacked here, the bridge is probably also in danger." He looked over a shoulder at Inari and asked, "We can count on you here, right?" Seeing the boy's positive response, he and Lee began to head back toward the bridge. "It's hard work, being a hero," he remarked conversationally.

Lee simply nodded agreement with a grin, while Inari pumped a fist and called after them, "It sure is!" before throwing a thumbs up and a gleaming smile.

"Why did you save me?" Rikou's question was simple enough, even if the circumstances behind it were not. Sure, the Leaf group had coexisted with the two nuke-nin with only minor friction, but they'd also made the duo forfeit on a contract and caused them to split up training her team mates while she worked with her father, and it was obvious to see the only thing Haku wanted was to spend time with and be of use to Zabuza. Not to mention her own incredibly embarrassing introduction to the boy entirely - not to ever mention that, and hopefully to forget it as soon as possible.

The young hunter-nin's reply was equally simple, or equally complex. "Because you are precious to Zabuza-sama, you are also an important person," he explained. "But right now, I must attend to your honored father."

Indeed, the mighty Handsome Green Beast was wavering on his feet, virulent poison already taking effect. Haku snagged one of the needles out of the roadbed as he crossed to the side of the faltering man, lifting his mask to sniff the poison that coated it. Arriving just in time to catch the Leaf jounin as his knees collapsed, the teen set him gently on the surface of the bridge, then formed a few quick hand seals and created a dome of ice over their position to protect them while he tried to administer an antitoxin.

Tying a pair of kunai to the ends of her silk rope, Rikou stepped closer to her remaining comrade. "Be careful, Uncle Zabu," she warned. "That suit he's wearing, it's a special chakra armor, that amplifies his ninjutsu and provides a barrier to resist and reflect any attack. We faced them before that time in Kirika... Gai-sensei and Jiraya-sama had to take them on one on one that time, and use some of their best techniques."

Practically frothing at the mouth, Gatou shouted, "THAT WAS YOU BRATS!" He threw his cigar on the ground and stomped on it in rage, then ordered, "AOI! I changed my mind! Don't kill that one, she's got a lot of 'working' to do to make up all the money she cost me! WELL! DON'T JUST STAND THERE, GET THEM!"

The criminal boss fumed for a few more seconds, as nothing continued to happen, then looked around fearfully as he realized even the sound of waves and sea birds had faded away, and the omnipresent ocean wind had stilled. "What... what's going on?" he demanded, then stepped back in horror as his mercenary army turned to look at him, eyes milky white with death and maggots crawling through their rotting flesh. The trio of ninja at his side fell apart into piles of festering meat and skeletons, skeletons that grabbed him and held him fast with their cold, bony hands as the zombies circled around, moaning and reaching for him, bloated purple tongues trailing green filth as they licked at black lips, ever closer, yellowed teeth flashing in decaying gums as they leaned in and the jaws gaped wide...

Seeing his former employer look around, then collapse screaming and thrashing in terror and imagined pain, Zabusa snuck a glance over his shoulder at his scowling niece. "Genjutsu?" he asked, receiving a confirming nod. "Good girl. No one gets to make those kind of comments about you. Nothing to say about it?" he asked, full attention back on the still smiling Rokusho Aoi.

"He's paying us," the Rain-nin replied, "but he needs to learn not to say such things to me as well. Still, I suppose it wouldn't be fair to leave her all alone while we play... You guys, get going," he ordered his team.

"We get one all to ourselves... Super lucky!" the leader said happily as all three formed a few seals, then announced, "Ninpo: Oboro Bunshin no jutsu!"

Three clouds appeared around each and took on their forms, then the whole group sprang into motion, advancing in a confusing pattern to make their opponent lose track of which were real or fakes.

Knowing she couldn't trust the enemy to ignore her client and focus on herself - that's why they were called 'the enemy' after all - Rikou quickly moved to cover Tazuna where the old workman was still sitting half-slumped over from being tossed out of the way of the poison needle attack. He'd avoided any serious injury but the landing had knocked the wind out of him, and he'd thumped the back of his head on the roadbed as well. She was just in time, a small spray of blood flying from the one-eyed rain-nin's arm as he lunged at the architect with a kunai.

He jumped back with a yelp, getting tagged twice more with the flying daggers on her cord before making it out of her range. A dozen other attacks as his team mates moved to cover the retreat passed harmlessly through the mist clones. Then it was her turn to yelp as a no-eyes she'd just attacked through after a strike to it directly had no effect seemed to stab her in the leg.

Whipping her flying daggers into a furious area-denial pattern around herself and Tazuna the girl tried to figure out the trick to the attack, without much luck. *I don't have time to use ninjutsu or genjutsu, and my weapon isn't well suited for close defense, especially with a second person to protect. Also, this pattern takes too much stamina to maintain for long. This is... a bad situation,* she admitted to herself.

The crowd of illusory Rain-nin had pulled back, forming a loose circle around the pair and she withdrew her blades to grip them by the handles, a small flow of chakra making the cord coil itself neatly over each shoulder to be out of her way. Warily she tested her leg, but it didn't seem significantly weakened and a quick glance at the wound revealed minimal bleeding. It was painful, of course, but working through pain was a familiar challenge by now. The trouble was that even minor wounds would add up quickly, and she couldn't see the enemy she'd bloodied anywhere in the ring of clones.

*The real enemies have to be hiding somehow, but then how are they attacking? That wasn't a thrown weapon, it was pulled out after the strike. Could they be using something like my own style, or chakra strings?* Her father had mentioned that the technique she used to control the motion of her cord with chakra was also used as a training exercise for the chakra string technique of advanced weapon masters and nin-puppeteers, but Rikou hadn't moved on to studying it herself yet. She eyed the circling opponents warily and prepared for the next attack.

Within the dome of ice, Haku worked quickly and calmly. Having been trained as a hunter-nin he was quite familiar with poisons of all types, even the more obscure kinds foreign to Hidden Mist, so once the components Aoi had used to make his 'Toxic Rain' were identified it was a simple matter to determine the antidotes to be administered. A wide-spectrum remedy slowed the effect long enough for him to combine half a dozen herbs and prepared medicines, and spoon the resulting mix into the pallid jounin's mouth.

Gai swallowed with a grimace and tried to roll to his feet, but was restrained by the teen's hand on his chest. "Please remain still for now, Gai-sama," he instructed, "The anti-toxin will require a few minutes to take full effect, and until then you could permanently damage your body with any exertion."

He pulled his mask back down over his face and formed a quick hand seal, gently assuring the older ninja, "I will assist Zabuza-sama and Rikou-sama while you recover." A thin, rectangular sheet of ice appeared behind the masked boy and he stepped backward, merging into it like the image in a mirror before fading away. Grimacing at the necessity but knowing better than to disobey medical orders in battle, Konoha's Handsome Beast began counting heartbeats impatiently.

The staring match between Aoi and Zabuza had continued, punctuated by the obligatory trash talk. "So, the slime bag mentioned some legendary sword," the ex-Mist-nin rumbled. "So where is it? Oh, I know, it's Princess Soranaki Hasaki's 'Usuba Kusanoha no Parasol,' The famous stiletto from her failed assassination of the Lightning daimyo in Kuchiyura fifty one!"

Never very stable, the Rain jounin's pupils shrank into psychotic pinpricks as his temper flared. Growling and gnashing his teeth Aoi whipped the bamboo umbrella around and down in front of himself, releasing a punishing wave of chakra amplified by the Hidden Snow chakra armor received from Gatou. The blast of force bowled Zabuza over and tossed him a good hundred feet back down the bridge before he could dig his sword into the deck and anchor himself.

The canopy snapped closed again as Aoi followed, lunging with the sharpened tip of his umbrella even as his opponent reset himself and flipped the massive zanbatou up in a quick parry. Metal reinforced bamboo was no match for one of the Tenken and the chakra-reinforced edge of Kubikiri Houchou slashed it easily into uselessness. A follow up backswing knocked the teal-haired man down in turn but did no meaningful damage, skittering off the hazy purple barrier of the armor's chakra shield.

The Rain-nin chuckled as he rose, wiping away a thin blood trail from a split lip. "So, you want to see my sword," he taunted. "Since yours is so impressive, I suppose I'll have to comply." He unhooked a small, dull metal cylinder from his side, one end equipped with a pair of metal claws supporting a ring aligned with the grip. He fed some chakra into it and with a crackling hiss a brilliant golden blade sprang into being, a delicately tapered leaf shape as long as a man's arm that crawled with tiny lightning bolts.

"This is the famous 'Raijin Sword' used by the Nidaime Hokage," Aoi boasted. "A blade that can cut through anything, even my bonds to Konoha, and serving as a ticket to Hidden Rain after that... While you, the famous Devil of the Mist, have gone soft and joined with those Leaf weaklings!"

At that, the slender Rain jounin leapt to the attack, unable to simply cut through Kubikiri Houcho's interposed mass despite his claims but delivering a debilitating shock through the metal each time the two met. Despite his inferior strength and swordsmanship the Rain-nin was still protected from return blows by the armor's barrier.

continued in part C


	10. TXY: Wave Hello 3 of 3

txy06c_wave_hello

2011-11-10 - chopped in thirds for FFn

continued from part B

With Haku's added help Rikou was faring better against the Rain genin team, the two standing back to back across Tazuna's crouching form. The teenage boy's needles were no more effective against the maddeningly durable mist clones than her own attacks, but just having someone to take over half of the circle was a vast relief for the girl. More importantly, the young missing-nin had considerably more battle experience than the Leaf kunoichi, and it was only a few minutes before he saw through the Rain-nins' technique.

"Rikou-sama," he explained quietly, "The bunshin truly are harmless... the enemy is hiding underground and attacking from their shadows." Proving his words, a handful of senbon stabbed into Two-eyes' outstretched arm, poised for an attempt to hamstring her in the shadow of his clone's kick.

"I see, I see!" the girl exclaimed. "Too bad I don't have any earth-type moves to attack someone underground. They'd probably damage the bridge anyway."

"Well, it's not my strong area either," the effeminate boy admitted, "but knowing what to look for their attacks become easy to counter." This time it was No-eyes who demonstrated, barely dodging an incapacitating nerve cluster hit and getting a sharp reminder to train his speed as a consolation prize.

An instant later the Rain genin was tossed into the air by Lee's rising kick as the two boys finally arrived, the thick stream of fire from Naruto's 'Kaen' slicing through the mist clones from above. They dissipated at last as he landed beside the defending duo. Following the stunned Rain-nin up in a Kage Buyo, Lee spun in place to deliver a punishing kick to his side, transferred momentum letting him reverse and repeat the move on the other side before catching No-eyes by one arm and pulling him into position for half a dozen quick jabs, then finishing off with a stomp kick just as he landed which transferred all of the considerable energy of the Leaf-nin's fall into his opponent's rib cage. A non-ninja would certainly have been killed and even with all the reinforcing chakra the boy could bring to bear there was still the wet crunch of breaking bone as Lee landed on him, followed by a coughing spurt of blood from his mouth where the rebreather mask had broken loose from its straps.

Even as their opponents were cut down by one and a horde of kage bunshin formed an outer ring of defense, a pained bellow from further down the bridge made Haku's head snap around. Aoi had finally gotten inside Zabuza's defense, his lighter, faster weapon and ability to ignore return strikes having compensated for what would normally have been vastly outmatched skill. The actual hit was a flesh wound at best, all but blocked by the bigger man's zanbatou, but the small contact it had made with his ribs was plenty to transfer the power it was molded from into the missing nin's body. Zabuza was jerking and twitching in a halo of lightning.

Suddenly the younger ex-Mist was beside them, grabbing Aoi's extended arm and pulling him into a shoulder throw away from the boy's beloved mentor. He quickly summoned a heavy mist with 'kirigakure,' not wanting to expend the chakra needed to pull water all the way from the ocean far below for his strongest but most demanding bloodline limit technique. "Aoi-san," he said coldly, as the Rain jounin recovered. "When I was a child... because people with advanced bloodlines were hated in Water Country, my father killed my mother when he discovered she held one... and in my panic, I killed him in return when he came for me. Without a home and hounded as a monster, I ran and hid among the alleys, a useless thing no more than trash. Zabuza-sama discovered me in that place, and allowed me to have a purpose by becoming his tool... and to protect Zabuza-sama I can even cut out my gentle heart with a blade, and become a true ninja. For hurting Zabuza-sama, I'll kill you!"

While he'd drawn attention by talking, Haku had been setting up his technique, bringing out more and more mist and letting it condense into puddles on the roadbed. Judging it sufficient he formed the necessary hand seals and announced, "Hijutsu: Makyou Hyoshou no jutsu!" A cage of ice sheets rose around the wary Rain-nin, and presently Haku appeared within the mirrored surfaces. "Within this prison, my speed is beyond compare," the teen announced. "You can neither dodge nor counter... all that remains is death."

Gatou hadn't missed the defeat of the Rain genin either, and was displeased by the way the battle seemed to be turning. "Forget those nobodies!" he ordered his army of goons, still surrounding Tazuna's work crew. "Get the old man and those damn ninja brats! They can't kill all of you, and I'll pay double to any man that brings me one of their heads!" Hesitant at first, the lure of double pay and their huge numerical advantage brought them around soon enough, and with a roar of bloodthirsty battle cries the thuggish 'samurai' charged.

Very much not wanting to get surrounded like that Rikou, Naruto, and Lee moved to a better position, the bunshin covering while the real genin helped Tazuna up and half-escorted half-carried him over to the crane, quickly pushing him into the cab. Arranging themselves against the side with the only door they reorganized just in time to meet the mercenary assault and renewed attacks from the last two Rain genin as the last of the kage bunshin poofed out of existence.

No fools they, they'd resumed their pattern of only rising out of the stone and mortar of the bridge to attack from shadow, using the mercenaries as cover the same as they had their mist bunshin earlier.

Naruto formed the point of the trio's wedge, and after knocking back the first attacker to tangle in the legs of the closest behind him, whipped through a few hand seals. "Katon: Hiyoroi no jutsu!" the blond announced, breathing a small plume of flames that spiraled around himself and then spread to become a burning aura that left his clothes untouched but but added an extra punch to hand to hand attacks, as well as cushioning incoming blows and making the less determined among the thronging mob back off some. He was tempted to try out his new skills with the chopper blade, but didn't want to actually kill anyone - the same reason he hadn't used 'Kunai Kage Bunshin' or 'Bunshin Daibakuha.'

Lee and Rikou had no such benefit but with the slab-sided crane on one side and team mates at the other and their backs they managed well enough. Grimly all three set about using disabling strikes, breaking bones or causing flesh wounds that would cut down the number of enemies able to fight as quickly as possible, but their own injuries also began to add up.

Unfortunately Haku had not been paying his usual level of attention to Zabuza's battle between the distance involved and the need to deal with the immediate opponents he had been facing, and before that he'd been inside the dome made earlier curing Gai. The shoulder throw, making use of soft arts, had not engaged the barrier either, so he had no warning of its existence until his senbon simply bounced away from the target.

Aoi laughed cruelly. "Dodge? Dodge what? As for a counter attack..." He reignited the Raijin no Ken and slashed at the nearest ice wall, Haku's image flickering out as air heated by the solid bar of electricity melted through as if it was no more than soft cheese. The upper half of the mirror fell and shattered, the super cold ice breaking along jagged edges that made still more cuts and scrapes even through his jumpsuit and kimono as Haku was knocked out of the back of the broken mirror, a wide burn mark across his chest that welled with blood from the slice at its center.

The rest of the ice prison quickly followed suit without a flow of chakra to sustain it against gravity, collapsing into ruin around the one-time Leaf while he laughed all the harder. The thin chunks of ice didn't even stagger him as the barrier shrugged them aside.

"Trusting other people... believing in other people," he told the long haired teen as he picked his way through the shards until he was close enough to deliver a kick that flipped Haku onto his back and knocked off the cracked hunter-nin mask. "This is where such idiotic things lead. What was it you said? Cut out your heart with a blade..." He jabbed the tip of the blade into the gash it had left on Haku's body from the mirror, making the boy convulse with the electrical discharge. "... Sounds good!" He raised the Raijin no Ken for a killing blow.

Before it could land his arm was grabbed again, this time by Zabuza. The slash in the side of his chest had bled until the stain reached halfway down to his knee and his muscles were still too weak from electrocution to wield Kubikiri Houcho, but he had easily enough strength to squeeze the nerve cluster at the wrist and make Aoi's hand flop open uselessly, then throw the Rain jounin away from his apprentice. "The trouble with guys like you," he said, kneeling painfully to retrieve the powerful artifact, "is that you think that strength is about yourself."

The Devil of the Mist pulled himself quickly back upright, stowing the deactivated sword's hilt in his waistband so he could form a quick series of hand seals. "Suiton: Suijinheki!" A spinning wall of water formed around Zabuza and Haku, deflecting the poisoned needles Aoi had thrown from where he landed on the railing of the bridge. "There's really only one thing I agree with the Leaf about," he continued conversationally, "but it's the thing that made all the difference in this case. You see, Aoi..." Another flight of senbon was batted aside as he ignited the chakra sword and brought it around in a blindingly fast defensive combination. "... I believe... I've taught Haku to believe... that true strength comes when a ninja has something to protect!"

A feint, a lunge, and the purple barrier shattered like glass. The yin yang plug on his left shoulder fixture followed suit as the seals inside overloaded and burst, and then it was the bishonen Rain-nin who was screaming and shuddering, impaled on the blade of the sword he used to cut away his oath to protect Konohagakure. His teal hair stood on end and his eyes rolled back in his head as little bolts of lightning danced between his teeth, then the muscle spasms twisted him to one side. The blade of Raijin no Ken burned its way out as he fell, just too low to open the major arteries of the liver or kidneys and allow a quick death through blood loss, then he fell over the side of the bridge and into the waves below.

At least as badly off from their battle of attrition as the Leaf genin, Aoi's team decided to cut their losses after seeing their sensei fall. They quickly gathered up No-eyes and made their own break over the railing, laying him in the bottom of one of the small boats the mercenaries had arrived in and rowing toward the limply floating jounin.

"COWARDS!" Gatou screamed after them, literally hopping with fury over the turn of events. "I'LL BILL YOUR WORTHLESS VILLAGE FOR EVERY YEN I PAID YOU! And YOU!" Turning toward the group at the crane, he pointed at his hired thugs. Seeing the ninja flee, the mercenaries had backed off as well - a wide semicircle of groaning or unconscious men lay around the three genin, and though bloodied none of the kids looked like they were on their last legs yet. "YOU IDIOTS! JUST KILL THEM, ALREADY! How hard is it to kill three stupid brats!" The crane's engine rattled to life with a hiss of steam and clash of gears, but he paid it no mind, swinging his finger back and forth between where Zabusa was digging Haku out of the ice that had trapped his legs and the wary genin inside the ring of samurai. "Even if you ninja bastards escape, I'll put a price on your heads so high you won't know a minutes peace without assassins coming to claim the bounty! I'll have you killed, and every man you know, and put the women to work in brothels! I'll-"

Whatever else he may have meant to do would have to be left up to their imagination, as the heavy beam Tazuna had picked up with the crane came crashing down on the short little crime lord's head, snapping his neck instantly and leaving him pulped under its massive weight. "You'll go to meet the demons in hell, where you belong," the architect eulogized, barely audible over the hiss of escaping pressure as he closed the damper on the firebox and opened relief valves to shut the heavy machine down again. With a shudder, he slowly sat down on the engineer's stool and stared down at his two hands. He'd used them to protect his country, his grandson, and those cute kids who'd fought and bled for him, but he still wished he had a bottle of sake right now. A big one.

An ugly mutter began to build among the remaining samurai, who'd just seen their meal ticket turned into worm food. Each man's complaints, threats and boasts driving the confidence and anger of the others, they worked themselves back up toward finishing off the battle-weary ninja and then ransacking the village to make up for their missing pay... at least until the all but forgotten dome of ice shattered, the Handsome Green Beast freeing himself with a cry of "Konoha Daisenpuu!"

The return of a second adult ninja to the battlefield, freshly rested and advancing on their position clustered around his students with a serious look, tipped the scales in favor of just making a break for the town and taking what they could as they passed through. Then the villagers arrived as well, waving shovels and pitchforks and the occasional real weapon here and there, Inari and Tsunami in the lead. One thug decided to turn and run, and that was all it took. Within moments the whole crowd had run for the wide rope ladder down to their boats, leaving only those unconscious or too injured to move behind to face the locals and eventually the Wave Daimyo's judgment.

The rest of the day was spent recovering, and cleaning up the building site turned battlefield since it was littered with poison coated needles, damaged or abandoned weapons, and blood spots as well as Gatou's grisly remains. Tazuna got himself most thoroughly drunk, and Gai resolved to have a talk with the man later to help him deal with what he'd done once he sobered up. The village as a whole had something of a festival atmosphere with their oppressor dethroned, one that only calmed rather than fading away in the next two weeks as the bridge was finally finished. By popular acclamation, the ninja would be the first ones to cross the completed span.

Standing with their group as one last load of gravel was tamped down into the ramp at the Fire Country end, Tazuna commented, "You know... this bridge still needs a name. Like 'The Super-Awesome Bridge Tazuna Built,' or 'Bridge of Heroic Ninja Defenders of Youthful Spirit...' or maybe 'Bridge of the Springtime of Youth' so it stands for everyone's bright future."

Giving his best Nice Guy Pose Gai agreed, "Truly an excellent name for such a splendid bridge, Tazuna-san! It shines with the passionate spirit that was invested in every stone." Turning to his brother in law and their students, he exhorted them, "Let us return to Konoha with all speed, so my cute genin can prepare for the upcoming Chuunin Selection Exam! As your sensei promised last time, Team Explosive Youth will be allowed to enter, to prove your passionate spirits before all of the shinobi nations!"

The usual cries of excitement and eagerness in the face of a new challenge met his announcement, and the proud jounin had to dry his eyes before pointing dramatically in the direction of Konoha. "Team Explosive Youth! HASSHIN!" he commanded, bounding away into the trees with his subordinates. Zabuza and Haku shared one last pained look before following, not wanting to get too far behind when their reception would depend greatly on Gai vouching for them, even with the return of the Raijin Sword to help buy a welcome.

A few days later, Shikanenai looked sideways at the blond genin beside him. The boy seemed uncharacteristically nervous as they approached the Archives. "You're quiet," he said flatly.

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Eh... do we have to go to the Archives?"

"Well..." Shikanenai drawled, stretching out the word sarcastically, "It'd be like going into the Chuunin Exam with one hand in an unbreakable cast, preventing you from forming seals. But no, I don't suppose that we -have- to go to the Archives. Why?"

"Hey!" came a call from one of the chuunin guarding the Archives' doors. "Get out of here, brat - you know you're not allowed here!"

Shikanenai rolled his eyes. "That why?"

Naruto nodded his head, slowing to a halt. "Yeah, that stiff-necked prick in charge said I couldn't go in. Ever." He slowed, then blinked as he realized Shikanenai hadn't.

"Didn't I go to the Academy with you?" the Nara clansman called to the chuunin at the door waving casually.

The man frowned and then squinted at Shikanenai. "Nara Shikanenai!" he said in surprise. "I haven't seen you in years - where've you been?"

"Ah, you know, out and about," the lanky chuunin replied and casually crossed his fist against the surprised man's chin, catapulting him backwards into the doors with a loud boom.

"What the- ?" the pink haired chuunin blurted, more surprised than hurt. Then he broke off, realizing that he couldn't move and that Shikanenai was holding his hands in the final seal of the Nara's trademark jutsu. "Shikanenai?" he asked uncertainly. "What are you doing?"

"Stomp him," Shikanenai told Naruto.

"What?" the genin said incredulously, eyes wide.

"You're a genin, I'm a chuunin," Shikanenai said flatly. "This is an order. Knock him out. Now."

"Hey wai-" the pinned man managed to say before Naruto kicked him in the side of the head, silencing him.

"Good lad," Shikanenai said and pushed on the door, swinging it slowly open. Inside, it was dark and full of shadows, a far cry from the bright and sunny streets of Konohagakure. "Man," he muttered, "This place hasn't changed one bit."

Two shapes darted through the high stacks of scrolls, kunai gleaming in their hands. Shikanenai's shadow, clearly visible in the long rectangle of light that streamed through the door behind him, flicked to one side and there were simultaneous crashes as the two guards responding to the door opening suddenly found that their limbs weren't moving.

"Them too," Shikanenai ordered flatly.

Naruto hesitated. "No," he said. "Not unless you tell me why you want me to attack Konoha-nin."

A thin smile crossed Shikanenai's face. "Good," he said softly, and released the jutsu that was pinning the pair. "Following orders is required of a ninja, but not blindly. Of course, questioning orders in mid-battle is unwise, but the circumstances merited it. Well done."

The guards were on their feet now and had been joined by half a dozen other ninja, half of them staff, the other half obviously simply shinobi who had been in the Archives and responded to the intrusion. An older man with the characteristic white eyes of the Hyuuga shouldered his way through the loose ring that had formed around the pair.

"What is the meaning of this!" he demanded. "Who are you and why do you bring that menace here!"

Shikanenai smirked. "This is just a test of your security," he said casually. "This was not a real attack. If this was a real attack then you would be explaining to Hokage-sama why A CHUUNIN AND A GENIN JUST WALTZED STRAIGHT THROUGH YOUR SECURITY!" he bellowed suddenly. "You!" he ordered one of the genin who'd come out of the stacks. "Fetch that idiot Haruno Shima from outside. And you!" he continued, glancing at the other guards - "Get the rest of the Archive staff up here."

"Stop!" shouted the Hyuuga. "You are in no position to give orders here - take him into custody," he ordered. "Both of them in fact."

The Nara cracked his knuckles as Naruto looked around with a worried expression on his face. "You are not brushing this under the carpet," Shikanenai said silkily. "Your security here is paper thin. Until you satisfy the Hokage that you can be entrusted with the Archives again it is you who are in no position to give orders, Aramaki."

Responding more to the certainty of Shikanenai's words than to their content, the ninja scattered through the library, leaving Hyuuga Aramaki to glare at Shikanenai in frustration. "Nara..." he hissed. "You're that useless cousin of Shikaku's."

Shikanenai simply grinned and wheeled on the groggy chuunin who staggered into the Archives through the door he'd been supposedly guarding. "Shima, you were an idiot at the Academy and you're an idiot now! How you passed the Chuunin Exam I will never know! Have you never heard of the henge jutsu! A ninja you've not seen in years just turns up and you let him pin you for a genin to beat up on? What were you thinking! Were you thinking at all? And besides that you hold a kunai like a pansy! Are you limp-wristed or something?"

Leaving the chuunin gaping, Shikanenai returned his attention to Aramaki. "And where is the reaction force! Why aren't ANBU swooping down to aid the defense of the Archives? I've been here five minutes and not a peep! You didn't send for them, did you? Did you? No, of course you didn't! Are you sure that no one's made off with half the collection while you weren't looking? As far as I can tell you might as well have been asleep for the last two years - a team from one of the other villages could have romped through here and grabbed all our confidential files and you'd probably not even have noticed!"

"Are you really doing a security check?" Naruto asked once the two of them were ensconced in one of the private reading rooms on the upper floor of the Archives.

"Why of course I am, Naruto," Shikanenai assured him with a wink. He scribbled a note on a scrap of paper from his pocket and held it up for Naruto to see.

'I wasn't until I saw how paper-thin the protection was' the note read.

"But won't -" Naruto said and then broke off as the Nara clansman grabbed his mouth and pushed it shut.

"From now on," he said, "I will only allow you to communicate me in two ways: writing," he passed Naruto a notepad and pen, "and hand signals."

"But I don't KNOW hand signals!" Naruto protested.

Shikanenai put his little fingers into his ears. "I can't hear you," he said brightly.

Naruto scribbled on the note pad.

'DON'T KNOW HAND SIGNS!'

"Well I guess this is your chance to learn," Shikanenai replied after reading the note.

That evening, a still disgruntled Hyuuga Aramaki was standing at attention in front of his boss's desk as the Special Jounin chewed him out over the incident.

"What on -earth- makes you think you can get away with treating a genin that way? Our job is to -support- people, remember?" Neshan demanded, voice cold and taut with controlled anger.

His own temper badly frayed, the older yet lower ranked man protested, "I saw and SEE no possible justification for allowing a demon access to our village's knowledge - which it is my job to defend!"

"The way you did today?" The Special Jounin pushed the glasses up on his nose and smiled sweetly. "...Let's drop the pretense. The question of Archive access does -not- fall under your authority. You -will- provide all visitors with the full access and support to which their ranks or authorization papers entitle them. If there is a conflict, then I am specifically ordering you to bring it to my attention. Clear?"

"A demon can't HAVE rank!" the Hyuuga sputtered, reddening as his trained poise fractured under the weight of outraged prejudice.

"No, but Uzumaki's hardly a demon, is he?" Neshan countered.

"But-!"

"Oi - which of us is the sealing specialist here, anyway? It's solid, it's secure - the monster can't touch him... and we owe him better." The younger man's body language was a clear warning that the issue was closed and any further argument would be met with dire consequences.

Surly and obstinate to the last, Aramaki still knew better than to push it, not when he'd already been already skirting the boundaries of Sandaime's law. "...yes, sir," he reluctantly acknowledged. Even if he couldn't eject -that thing- if it wanted access, he could damned well make sure it had to obey every -letter- of the regulations.

*I'll whip those slackers on my security force into shape with razor wire if that's what it takes, but another incident like today's inspection will NOT occur,* he swore silently as he left the small, work-cluttered room.

* * *

><p>(Would you like to know more?)<p>

* * *

><p>A quick note on continuity - as a general rule, I'll only be using the manga, because almost everything from the anime that isn't directly taken from the manga sucks unremittingly. The first movie and the basic situation from Jump Festa 2004 (the Hidden Waterfall mission) are rare exceptions, along with a one-off filler post chuunin exam and a variation on Anko's backstory as revealed in the mission where Isaribi appeared, since they fit with what I'd already planned. Aoi's situation is the only other major filler material I plan to use, though I haven't yet decided whether to cover the Tea Country race in any detail. I have a really GOOD aftermath type scene, but might alter the set up to fit another original arc ala Search For Gero-Sennin. Expunging the stupid from the Tea Race arc would be about the same difficulty as writing something original anyway. Aoi appears in the last post-Tsunade  pre-Sasuke-the-Defective filler episodes s4 ep102 - s5 ep106, his genin team are the Rain-nin Team 7 and Kabuto encounter in the Forest of Death just before the end of that part of the Chuunin Exam. How exactly that works when he's a traitor to the Leaf is of course unexplained in the filler episodes, but here he's obviously in no shape to attend even if he wasn't Persona Non Grata and a substitute sensei will be accompanying them.

Sasuke-the-Defective - oops, I mean, "defector." As with Tenten, I dislike traitors, and have therefore found little to like about the canon plot since Tsunade returned to Konoha. Hence fanfic, where reality is malleable to -my- will.

Drakensis created the character of Shikanenai in the message board discussions of the story, based on Nara family traits and more than a bit of Read Or Die (which I highly recommend.) He predates the appearance of a paper-using Akatsuki member in the manga by about two and a half years. Of course, as a chuunin, his paper jutsu are no where near as crazily powerful as hers. Originally his profile had him nicknamed 'Nobegame' after the type of paper he prefers to use, but subsequent development in a spin-off series from the message board did away with that; close friends just drop the 'Shika.' If I get permission and get this fic to the appropriate (post-Godaime recruitment) point, that spin off "The (team) Seven Substitutes," will appear as a side story to this one, and the post-TtSS versions of 'Nenai, Neshan, and Katsu will carry on from there.

For more detail about the Demon Brothers and their weird ninjutsu, read Teenage Genin Ninja Heroes by Valles, aka Nathan Baxter/Baksuta Neshan. I didn't need them, since the kids already faced their first combat, but needed to dispose of them somehow and I REALLY dislike traitors. In Nathan's fic, the canon Team Seven are under his character's instruction and meet that version of the Onikyodai at the usual time, and have to overcome them themselves. Because he was integral to the conception of this herd of plotbunnies and I needed someone to deal with Tenten in her missing year, he got a spot in the second-line cast of this one. Compared to me he wins at both drama and humor, so seriously, check it out even though it's unfinished and abandoned after he got disgusted with the way canon developed post-timeskip. FFn Story ID No. 2650795

Ouki Gundan - great+tree army - in the spirit of the Harem no Jutsu, Naruto makes a bunch of clones who turn into normal forest creatures to scout or attack enemies by surprise. One of a number of special tactics developed by the team to take advantange of the skill, though because the transformation requires a constant expenditure of chakra it is limited in duration and those with sensitive detection skills will notice the animals' behavior and chakra output as being unusual. Against genin or chuunin level opponents it's quite handy, and even stronger ninja still face the constraint of avoiding the clones if they don't want to be spotted. As the "sensor type" ninja hadn't yet been introduced when I was writing this, you can assume all jounin and higher skilled chuunin can detect chakra use at least in close proximity, actual range depending on now good the user's chakra control is. Real sensor types have around ten times the detection range, or more.

senbon - acupuncture needles, also used as throwing weapons by medic and hunter-nin. Haku's ranged weapon of choice.

Kubikiri Houchou - neck-cutting cleaver (as in the squared off kitchen knives)

Rikou shoving back Zabuza's sword - It's all about the leverage, baby. The blade alone is a bit longer than he is tall, call it seven feet plus three more of handle. Even if he has the widest possible grip on that handle, with Tazuna's neck out near the end and her pushing near the tip the pivot point is his closest hand, meaning she has a mechanical advantage of better than two to one. Further, he's holding it still, not pressing further, while Rikou has the momentum of her motion forward, two hands working in the same direction instead of one prying against the other, and can angle her body to add its weight and the strength of her legs to the initial shove and to hold against the increased force Zabuza applies before giving up. And, of course, he doesn't want to go through family just for money, or a worthless bug like Gatou.

In this revision of back story, if Keiunko hadn't been sent as the messenger to Konoha and met Gai he'd still have failed his coup attempt a few weeks later because she'd have been in the Mizukage's office to give a report, and her instinctive move to get between her kage and harm's way would have stayed his first blow. After that, even though the Mizukage is nowhere near the level of Sarutobi, he's still too strong even for Zabuza without the advantage of surprise. (And if you disagree about Sandaime-sama's strength, consider that he fought three ninja with legendary power to a standstill, killing two outright and giving the third what would have been career-ending injury, when they were all in peak physical condition and his own body was diminished by advanced age and years in a desk job with only minimal time to maintain his skills. There's a reason he was called "the God of Shinobi," and it's not a kind smile or an unfaded interest in the opposite sex. Though certain of his female contemporaries might have had something to say about the latter, back in the day.)

Zabuza may seem unreasonably idealistic compared to other depictions of him, but 1) he really got very little canon exposure and other fanfic is immaterial, 2) Haku had to get it from somewhere, and 3) I had to make him sympathetic enough for it to be plausible for Gai and later the Hokage and Council to accept the situations I want to present. Also... I really do see him as another almost-Naruto-who-didn't-make-it, someone who tried to live as a ninja without compromising his ideals but couldn't pull it off similar to the way Gaara is a demon vessel who was consumed by the hate foisted on him at every turn. Is it scary that I tend to identify more with the villains (not just these two) than the heroes, or just sad?

poutburst - this was actually a typo, but I kind of like it. It fits.

Kiri no Tenken - Heavenly Sword of (the) Mist, basically the style of the Seven Swordsmen. Don't worry, Naruto's not going to turn into a Zabuza clone now, and his blade is really too small and doesn't have the right kind of handle to make full use of the style. He will pick up enough to get started though, and then develop it into his own (more one handed) style that includes a fair amount of wind-element use since that's his natural affinity as well what the cutter is designed to produce. Unlike a chakra fang it doesn't channel and manifest whatever the user is best at, it only produces wind-type effects - which means if the user sucks at Wind, it would be next to useless as a weapon, while for someone like Gomaru or Naruto whose primary type is wind it becomes extremely deadly since it makes it much easier to channel and direct into the patterns for jutsu similarly to Temari's fan, allowing many attacks to be used without needing seals.

Jou Rasenbou - Poison(ed) Rain (of) Needle(s), a technique Aoi uses in the anime.

Ninpo: Oboro Bunshin - ninja magic: mist clone - though no more able to attack than a normal bunshin, they have just enough physical structure to avoid being disrupted by a single hit.

Soranaki Hasaki - false or crocodile tears / feigned sadness + edge of a blade

Usuba Kusanoha no Parasol - thin (blade) + blade of grass; parasol is a western term derived from french for a lady's frilly sun-shade, generally too lacy and delicate to withstand use as an actual umbrella. It even sounds prissy, hence why I didn't look up a Japanese word for similar devices.

Kuchiura - determining a speaker's true or hidden meaning - in this case, "Kuchiyura fifty one" means the fifty first year of the rule of a daimyo named Kuchiura, presumably the one who didn't get fooled and assassinated by Hasaki-hime. In other words, not only is Zabuza dissing Aoi for fighting with an umbrella like a girly noblewoman, he's comparing him to a famous historical failure as well.

"So, you want to see my sword," (Aoi) taunted - wink wink, nudge nudge. Watching those episodes, one kind of gets the impression he 'ain't quite right.' In more than one way, actually, the jerk is definitely a sociopath as well.

Raijin - the god of lightning

Hijutsu: Makyou Hyoshou - secret skill: demonic ice mirrors

Hiyoroi no Jutsu - "fire+armor skill" - forms a shell of flaming chakra around the user, making it painful to attack barehanded, useless to bind them with ropes or cloth, and provides a bit of a cushioning effect to reduce the impact of weapons. The chakra manipulation is only moderately difficult, high genin level, but it requires so much chakra to use for any length of time that it is normally considered a chuunin level technique at a minimum. Naruto, of course, has no problem with supplying mass quantities of chakra - generally quite the opposite.

Suiton: Suijinheki - Water release: water (?) wall - I think the bit of translation I'm missing is "spinning" or something along those lines. Other fanfics have listed it as "encampment" but I don't consider that as necessarily reliable.

Konoha Daisenpuu - of the leaf + big whirlwind kick

Tazuna's crane - it's half visible when the team enters Wave on the boat, but not there for the final battle in the manga... I decided to keep it, because it was useful. As for how it can possibly be got started so fast with a steam engine - the crew got the coal going in the firebox before the goons arrived to round them up, so it was heating up all along. The engine in the little boat they arrived in used a so called 'flash plant,' a coil of tubing in an oil flame that has water pumped in constantly on one end and the engine on the other, so it starts producing steam at usable pressure essentially instantly. This requires a slightly larger arrangement than the anachronistic modern outboard in the manga, but not too much so to be unworkable.

This version of the setting has hand-built steam engines as the pinnacle of conventional technology - the 'televisions' and 'radios' that appear here and there are actually seal-based (as in fuinjutsu, not hand seals) and run on chakra. Power lines are all over the place because raiton energy is the easiest way to transfer chakra from one place to the other and can be generated artificially then converted with a seal pattern into whatever form is needed for the rest of the device. As mentioned before, Shima is the younger brother of Haruno Rin from chapter four. (Part 6 here on FFn.) Though he makes a less than glorious showing here, as a general rule he is a fairly competent ninja, and the chuunin-level Haruno bloodline ability to perform any known ninjutsu by having their inner self make the hand seals would have easily dealt with the shadow capture if he hadn't been so surprised - for one thing, since people caught in it can still talk, they can still breathe fire, and most other ninjutsu have even less gestural requirements aside from the seals themselves.

Omake: Cutting room floor? I'll cut you!

(With apologies in advance for stereotypical macho posturing and excessive profanity)

As the two samurai stepped onto the deck surrounding their target's house, the one in the hat complained, "What about that boar, huh? What the hell was up with that? All you had to do was fuckin' cut its throat, man, but no, you had to flip out and turn it into sausage patties. Then you went and slashed up a shitload of trees on top of that!"

The tatooed one growled, "Shut up, fool. I'll cut you."

"Yeah yeah, cut this, cut that, cut you... the only time you don't talk about cutting shit up is when you're actually doing it. Did your mom let you run wild with scissors as a kid or something?"

"Damn it, I told you to shut up. I don't care how pissed Gatou will get, I seriously will cut you if you don't shut the fuck up."

"That's it, isn't it?" the hat guy continued doggedly. "I bet that's what happened to your eye, you were running around with a pair of fuckin' scissors and tripped, and it gave you this fucked up fixation on cutting things. Why do I hang out with you again?"

"GrrrAAAH!" the eye patch wearing mercenary shouted in frustration, slashing apart the door of Tazuna's house. Surprised, Tsunami turned from the table inside, where she'd been shredding a cabbage into thin slices to go in the soup pot. The edge of her great grandmother's favorite kitchen knife glinted in the morning light, honed narrow and wickedly sharp from four generations of careful use. "Damn, what a sweet piece," he muttered. "I'd like to cut something up with -that-..."

His partner facepalmed, sighing, "Focus, dammit, focus. Get the bitch, then get turned on over her oh-so-sexy knife. Fuckin' freak."

END OF LINE


	11. Team 7: Strife 1 of 2

txy07a_t7_strife

2007-12-13 - initial file created, notes transferred from DWMB saves  
>2007-12-25 - Sakura's training notes made scenes, slotted them together<br>2008-05-18 - scene expansion both directions on those, gift to c-rank request; basic plot notes complete  
>2008-05-19 - SakuraKakashi explanation appeared, requiring a new scene to follow there  
>2008-05-22 - nailed that, and a few more notes for the C-rank 2008-06-08 - mission fight scene<br>2008-06-09 - aftermath, proofread. Done unless something pops up.  
>2008-06-21 - caught a few more gremlins<br>2011-10-11 - chopped in half for FFn

Note: This partly takes place before and partly concurrently with Team Six's mission to Wave Country - you'll know when they overlap.

"Neshan-sensei?" Tenten leaned her head in the door frame of her former teacher's office.

He glanced up. "Eh? Oh, hey, kid. How are you?"

She stepped inside and flopped into the visitor's chair. As always, the faint 'clank' that violent motion drove from the vast array of weapons hidden across her person brought an involuntary smile to his face.

Her expression, on the other hand, was outright distressed. "My team is impossible!"

He pushed his glasses back up from where they had slid down as he labored over his paperwork and leaned forwards on his elbows. "I hate to break it to you, but Kakashi's almost more of a pain in the ass than he is a ninja. You're hardly the only person to say that about him."

"It's not just him!" she wailed, waving her hands wildly. "Sasuke's not so bad when he's holding -still-, but he's got all the cooperation skills of a shark and almost as big a stick up his ass as... as..." She paused to cast about for an appropriate description.

"As a certain Hyuuga?" Neshan prompted, starting to twirl a pen through his fingers.

She huffed. "Don't make me smack you."

He laughed, and she started ranting again. "And Sakura's nice in those once in a blue moon moments when forgets she's convinced that I'm trying to steal away her great overwhelming childhood crush-" she broke off and stabbed an accusing finger at the older ninja as he opened his mouth. "-Don't- say a -word-, you!"

He held up both hands, palms out, and grinned. "Wasn't gonna!" he lied.

"You forget - I -know- you. But even when she -isn't- glaring daggers she's still just one of Suzume-sensei's bubble-brained 'infiltration specialists' - which is a damn shame, since when she doesn't think Sasuke's around to be turned off by it she's actually pretty smart." She trailed off for a moment, then grinned. "She talks to herself, you know. When she thinks no one can hear."

"She's a Haruno. They do that. It's a bloodline thing."

"Really? And I thought she was just being strange... And informative." Her grin turned mischievious. "I don't think my hair looks like puffballs, do you?"

He blinked. "Yes."

"Creep. So we go on a mission and he charges off solo - or solo until she goes trailing after him like a duckling after her momma, and never a thought from -either- of them if its the right thing to do and if -I- try to talk them into a better plan rather than just ignoring them or following along after myself, then that... that... Hatake-BAKA tells me to 'calm down and not get so strung out'!" By the end of her complaint, she had begun to wave her arms again.

The Jounin laughed, then waved an admonishing finger at her. "Hatake-_sensei_."

She gave him a plaintive look. "Even if he's an idiot?"

"-Especially- if he's an idiot." He paused. "Which he is."

She rolled her eyes. "Is he -ever-. Even with all the trouble we three genin have been having he just floats around with his nose in that nasty book of his and spouts off about teamwork from time to time - as though -building- that wasn't just as much -his- job as ours! - and completely ignores the fact that Sakura hates my guts and Sasuke couldn't listen if his life depended on it! The only time he actually gets off his ass and -does- something is when it's our turn to torment poor Tora!" She sighed. "I wish you were our teacher instead."

He cocked an eyebrow and gestured at his desk - which, as usual, was covered in a minimum of three layers of cheap paper and messy handwriting. "Sure, I'll take it up in my copious free time."

She blushed, since she knew that the year he had spent instructing her while she waited for an opening in a forming or existing team had come entirely out of his own limited free time - without pay. "Eheh."

He waved it off with a grin. "So you wanted to vent about the fact that your team doesn't get along?"

Tenten sighed. "Yeah. I guess... I'm just so -frustrated-, because my team is just flying apart more and more every day, and they're good people despite that and I want us to be -friends-, too, the way you and I were..."

He stared at her for a moment, then smiled. "Are," he said, touched. "We -are-." She didn't know quite how to respond to the way her words had obviously meant more to him than she'd expected, and eventually he folded his hands in front of him. "I'll talk to Kakashi. I can't promise anything, but..." he trailed off and shrugged.

Legend of Explosive Youth Part Seven

Team Seven: Icha Icha Jealousy

Much of the beginning (Neshan's scenes) by Valles, since it's his insert, the rest by ClassicDrogn with the usual kibbutzing by Greiver, Drakensis, and the Drunkard's Walk Message Board crew at large.

"What did you want to see me for?" Kakashi asked as he turned away from Konoha's monument to its fallen.

The younger Jounin shrugged and fell in beside him. "I talked to Tenten the other day."

"Oh? She told you something you want to confirm?"

"In a word." Subject broached, Neshan hesitated before picking his approach.

"And your conclusions from when you watched us?"

Knowing that he'd been seen wasn't a problem; he hadn't really meant to hide from Kakashi anyway. "From what Rin-sensei said about her own training," Neshan began, as gently as he could, given the subject of the opening, "it looks like you're modeling your teaching style after Yondaime-sama's."

That got a smile, which might or might not have been sincere, but either way was sketched more in the angle of the senior ninja's head and the set of his shoulders than any expression on his face. "I have, yes."

"You're missing something," he told him, with the blunt directness that made some ninja regard working with him as a trial. "Actually a couple of somethings, but there's one that worries me - and Tenten. Rin-sensei had always described him as being a lot more active than I saw you being, and, for that matter, as tailoring his cues and signals to his audience rather than relying on them to pick up the standard ones which they might not have been trained in, yet. He left some fairly extensive training logs; when I checked them... The difference was striking."

Kakashi's usual air of distracted affability sloughed away as he devoted his entire attention to turning that thought over in his head, and when he turned fully to face his companion the look in his exposed eye was enough to send a chill up its target's back - though no Jounin, however junior, would ever be so sloppy as to show the reaction. "You have specific advice, I suppose."

Neshan inclined his head, and smiled politely. "First, I would suggest that jutsu and other active forms of training should be mixed in as part of missions and regular practice, rather than inserted between them or left for students to find and apply on their own. Enabling that is the purpose of the combination of Jounin-sensei and D-class missions in the first place. Second... Teamwork must be taught, too. Shown. It won't just happen on its own - or if it does, will be of an unreliable and inferior sort. The high emotions of combat will foster the necessary attachments if nothing else does first, but experience is needed to smooth over their interactions to whatever degree needed to work effectively - and at this stage, providing that experience is the teacher's role, not the student's."

They met each others' eyes for a long, tense moment, and then the pose of the lovable scarecrow snapped back into place. "You don't mince words much, do you?"

"It drives all sorts of people just crazy," Neshan answered conspiritorily.

A couple of weeks after her visit with her interim sensei, Tenten arrived at the bridge Team Seven used as a meeting spot to find not Kakashi but Sasuke reading a book with a light blush on his face. If not for the fact that she recognized the cover as belonging to one of the historical romances she herself owned a copy of, she'd have been rather upset at him picking up bad habits from the jounin.

Looking up at the sound of her ninja sandals on the bridge he snapped it closed and grunted a greeting, then leaned on the railing and fixedly ignored her and Sakura, arriving a minute or two later, until the pink had faded from his cheeks.

"Here. I bought this by accident. You said you read this tripe," the boy said as he proffered the novel to Tenten.

"Oh? Thanks, but I already read that one, it came out around the time you graduated. It is a little racy, isn't it?" she giggled.

"Hnf." Why the hell did he keep getting this weird hot feeling in his ears, Sasuke wondered.

"The ending was so sad, though! After all that, to lose his new family as well."

"Keh. Ryomaru was a fool, abandoning his vengeance for such weakling emotions. He should have expected Ichima to return. Taking revenge at the cost of his own life... To achieve such a result after allowing himself to go soft like that, he should have been thankful." Only too late did he realize that discussing the plot meant that he'd actually read the foolish thing, which he'd had no intention of admitting - of doing, doing! - no matter how bored he'd been at the time.

This was easily more words than Sakura had -ever- heard Sasuke speak at once, and now he had a bright blush again! *AAAH! SO CUTE!* Inner Sakura squealed at the sight. *Hell yeah! No, focus, dammit! Why the hell is -she- getting a present! Can't she see that Sasuke-kun is MINE MINE MINE!* "Why you... Puffball-head! How dare you try to besmirch Sasuke-kun's mind with dirty books and embarrass him like that!"

"Geeze, use a hyouton, Sakura!" the older kunoichi complained. Teasing, she grabbed on to the silently mortified Uchiha's arm and played at pressing up against his shoulder the way his fangirls tended to do. "A noble samurai like Sasuke-dono has a MUCH stronger mind than that!"

Of course, she had a bit more in the way of endowment than either Sakura or Ino had so far developed, something he couldn't help but notice with certain scenes from the foolish story unfortunately fresh in his mind. This distraction kept him from instantly shaking her off as he usually would with his grabbier admirers. "Besides, maybe he wouldn't mind a little -smirching-, ne Sasuke-kuuu- eep!"

The clanless girl's playful tone turned into a yelp of surprise as her pink haired team mate roared with jealous rage and charged, only barely dodging away from the furious girl's wild punch in time to avoid a bloody or broken nose. "Whoa, hey! I'm just kidding around," she yelled, trying to defuse the situation. "I've told you dozens of times I don't -"

"SHUT UP! I've told YOU dozens of times, stay away from MY Sasuke-kun, you... over-sized... knife-freak!" Two more punches whiffed by as the brunette flipped away from the railing to land on the arch over the end of the bridge.

"OVERSIZED! Why you-!" Suddenly realizing that the other girl wasn't exactly talking about her waistline, Tenten's eyes narrowed cattily. "Don't get upset, LITTLE girl, you've got lots of room to grow! Oops, I meant, -time!-"

"JUST DIE, YOU SKANKY OLD WOMAN! SHANNARO!" Before she even really thought about it, a pair of kunai were in Sakura's hands, then flying through the air at her supposed friend.

Eyes widening at this level of escalation, Tenten took too long to react to deflect the thrown blades and had to dodge again, letting herself fall backwards off her perch while keeping a grip on the wooden arch, using that leverage and momentum to do a flipping leap toward the younger girl. The sun and moon fork she preferred for close combat appeared in her hands and two quick swats with its blunt brass sphere knocked the second pair of kunai out of Sakura's hands, then a third in the jealous girl's solar plexus sent her sprawling.

Landing on her butt on the planks of the bridge with a painful thump, the youngest Haruno wheezed and gasped for breath, looking up at the taller, faster, stronger, cuter, bustier... *Damn, it's just not fair! Why does she get to be better than me in every category?* she thought, tears starting to well up in her eyes.

"Hey now, settle down," Tenten warned seriously, still holding a guard stance with her polearm. "Arguing is one thing, but pulling live blades is different."

Sasuke, still too embarrassed at the earlier discussion let alone being the object of a physical fight, couldn't even produce one of his signature moody grunts.

Scrambling to her feet, Sakura's mouth opened and shut a couple of times as she tried to respond, but finally all she could do was flee, stifled sobs fading into the distance as she ran.

Releasing her weapon, Tenten could only grimace at how very much their 'team' just did NOT work, before stalking off to perch on the branch of a nearby tree, fuming at how badly Sakura had over-reacted, as well as herself for provoking the girl. Even if she was just teasing and even if the green-eyed (literally and figuratively!) pinkie was practically begging for it, she still should know better.

Neither had significantly improved their mood by the time their sensei arrived an hour and a half later. "Yo," the jounin greeted lazily, eye curved in his usual carefree expression. He'd really outdone himself thinking up a good excuse this morning, as soon as the usual complaints were out of the way...

The usual shout of "You're late," of course...

Any second now...

"Ara? You could greet your teacher with a little enthusiasm," he complained. *And it was such a good excuse, too! Oh well, a few more minutes to read Icha Icha next time.* Looking around, he visually confirmed what his nose and more esoteric senses had already told him. "Sakura-san already left... Did something happen?"

Sasuke grunted, with a bit of extra irritation mixed into the brooding.

Tenten was a bit more informative, tersely but accurately summarizing the earlier confrontation. "I didn't mean anything more than some friendly joking around," she concluded, "but even if it's partly my fault, she didn't have to over react like that!" Huffing, she flopped back down at the base of her tree. "Talk about your jealous little brats..." she muttered quietly.

Kakashi considered the situation for a few seconds, then decided it was probably for the best if the kids had got it out of their systems. "Eh... Well, I guess she can miss today. She'll settle down, and then train a little extra next week to make it up. It's a simple mission today instead of training but you should be able to handle it without her, just buying some groceries..." Hmm, the list was fairly long. Perhaps he could have them drill it as bringing a wounded comrade out of a hostile zone, with bagged food standing in for a comatose person's limp weight and fragile condition.

The sun had yet to peek over the horizon the next morning when Kakashi snapped awake at the sound of footsteps outside his door. He was already dressed and half equipped with his usual loadout by the time the visitor started pounding on it. A deep sniff as he approached revealed the perfume favored by his younger female student (something he'd need to talk to her about before going on any field missions, he reminded himself) and a glance through a peephole angled into the wall confirmed it, so he pulled out his favorite book before opening the door with the other hand. He waited a beat, looked up, and inquired, "Oh, Sakura-san... visiting your sensei at home? I didn't know you knew where I live..."

"My father told me," she explained shortly before brushing it off, grabbing his collar, and hauling him out into the stairwell. "Come on... You're supposed to be my sensei and even my taijutsu sucks, so teach me! I'm not waiting around for you to do as you like today!" Blinking, Kakashi pulled the door shut as he was tugged towards the stairs and pulsed his chakra at the points that would close a few of the locks and arm the more important traps in case someone tried breaking in, before obligingly putting the book away in favor of a ration bar to munch.

He was faintly surprised at the strength the girl was showing - not that he couldn't have resisted her, of course, but if this was what she had with only minimal Academy conditioning, he'd been doing an injustice to let her slide since becoming her superior. Shaking Sakura's hand loose from his vest, he gave the scowling girl one of his eye-smiles, then took the lead himself to the practice field. He'd visit Obito and Rin a little later, when he could tell them about his spitfire of a student's first serious lesson.

*Shannaro! I can't wait to see the look that'll be on that puffball-head skank's face as I dodge EVERY ONE of her flying weapons, then she gets a double kick to her feakishly-huge chest to go flying into a dumpster! Sasuke-kun will come to his senses and see that I'm the perfect girl for him, and we'll kiss softly under a blossoming cherry tree framed by the sunset, and... (blush) and... (giggle) and...*

And to think, teacher and student had almost been having the same conversation up to then.

Several arduous hours later, Sakura flopped onto her back in the grassy training ground, soaked in sweat and exhausted both mentally and physically. She rubbed at her eyes as her thoughts rapidly spiralled toward depression. "I - I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei," she apologized, fighting back bitter tears. "I just can't seem to get it... I guess I really am hopeless as a ninja after all..."

Kakashi's own feeling had been torn between mild frustration at having to keep breaking down concepts to more basic components and being honestly impressed with the drive the girl had shown and how quickly she'd grasped those components and reassembled them once he found the right way to explain. Though, between his mask and his lackadaisical attitude he'd given no perceptible sign beyond having kept his attention on her rather than going back to Icha Icha Paradise. The jounin quirked his eyebrow, blinked blandly at her, and soothed, "Maa, don't give up so soon, student. You've actually picked up a lot of the basics, you just have to find the rhythm and train it into your body. Taijutsu doesn't appear instantly, ne?"

"Find the rhythm...?"

"Yep!" he sang, an almost visible heart appearing as punctuation while his one uncovered eye screwed up with the hidden smile. "Hehee, you'll get to find out an answer to that question you asked the first day, too!"

Bracing herself up on her elbows Sakura cocked her head curiously and wondered, "Question? Which question?" but Kakashi had already started to wander off in the direction of the memorial stone, nose firmly glued to his little orange book. Grumbling, she pulled herself painfully to her feet and half-heartedly tried to slap away the dust and grass clinging to her drastically shortened maroon dress and twined in her hair. She'd hemmed the lower panels of her uniform last night, leaving it little more than a long shirt at this point. The big Haruno ring that had graced the front was gone completely, leaving just her tight black shorts to allow less restrictive movement (and just maybe, catch Sasuke-kun's eye. The war was on, shannaro!)

Oh well... Nothing for it but to wait and see what her weirdo sensei appeared with tomorrow, it seemed.

*Yo, Obito... I think more and more how much you'd like Haruno... Or maybe, how much she seems like you. From strife within the team her drive to succeed has appeared, just like that time... Of course, her temper is even worse, if anything. Tenten's the level headed one, like you Rin, though she's more interested in her weapons than medic skills, and Sasuke is me all over, obsessed with blotting out the stain of a disgraced family member. It's a little different, but still so familiar ... it'll have a better end this time, though. I'll make sure of it... I won't let my comrades die...*

The masked jounin's thoughts fell silent then, mute witnesses to the ghosts that danced before him; a smiling blond, a serious silver-mane, a sweet-tempered chestnut, and a happy-go-lucky brunet. He'd gotten there far later than usual, and the sun had long set before he made his way home again.

When he showed up the next morning - barely even half an hour late! - with a set of bongo drums and happily plopped down to play a beat for her to practice to, it was all Sakura could do not to plant her face like a turnip from shock. *'I have many hobbies' he said... How the hell does that mean 'playing the bongos!' What a super-weirdo!*

Their schedule of crappy missions resumed again the following day, but Tenten and Sakura managed to avoid repeating the incident, if only by not speaking to each other unless it was required for the mission. Combined with Sasuke's usual quiet it made for a refreshingly professional lack of chatter to the former ANBU captain. In the afternoons when the team would be dismissed for their personal training he and Sakura would return to the secluded practice ground near the memorial stone and he'd bring out his drums, teaching the agile girl more of that odd dance-based taijutsu style he'd picked up on a mission to the tropical islands north of the continent.

It was eminently suited to her build, maximizing Sakura's advantages in speed and strength to weight with its emphasis on kicks and knee strikes and minimising the disadvantages in toughness and raw power with unpredictable evasion and fast movement. The high mobility of the style would also allow her to quickly open and close the range on an opponent to mesh with her team mates ninjutsu and thrown weapon specialties.

Most evenings he'd drop by the Uchiha training grounds after his lessons with Sakura to see what Sasuke had learned that day and one or two days a week he'd check in on Tenten instead, but she spent most of her time refining her aim or adding to her stock of explosive tags, neither of which activities needed much if any input from him. Sasuke had the entire Uchiha jutsu library to learn from so he was content to let them manage their own schedules for the most part.

Oddly enough, he found himself looking forward to the afternoon sessions, the never ending guilt at the fate of his old team mates lightening in the face of Sakura's determined drive and eager ear for the stories of notable missions, training techniques, and Maito misadventures he found himself telling as she moved through one form after another.

It was the most he'd talked about the past to anyone, really, even if he still dodged more personal issues, and he wondered privately if this was the kind of feeling that made some jounin take one genin team after another, or inspired the Academy's staff to stick with their much-griped-over positions. Meanwhile the girl's skill grew by literal leaps and bounds.

*Was this what Obito could have become, if he'd survived that time?* Kakashi wondered, contemplating the rapid progress the girl had made since finding her motivation. Actually, he'd have thought she'd have more trouble with the arm strength required to support some of the low-to-high moves, but ... *Wait...*

The jounin made no outward change as he tapped out an energetic beat, nor did he pause as he described the time Gai had heard he knew this style and challenged him to a dance-off for the title of "Konoha's Handsome Beast." Many of the refinements he'd taught her had in fact come from the other jounin, who'd quite happily won his 'title' with them. More importantly, though...

Now that he was paying attention, he could feel his student channeling chakra into her body for strength... not in short bursts as he'd expected, and would do himself, but the whole time. Most of the errors he'd had to point out came when her control would falter, and either leave her without the needed strength or simply distract her from performing them.

*She has that kind of control? It would be impressive even in a fellow Elite Jounin, let alone a rookie genin.* It did explain the problem she had with endurance, though if that was the case her recovery speed must also be very good. There was a bigger problem, however, and one he'd have to address.

"Halt," he commanded, stopping the beat and waiting until she landed from the whirling kick/kippup, standing attentively before him. She'd been working for most of their usual three hours already, and the girl was dripping with sweat, trembling from the sustained exertion and... no, she should not be that pale, especially after this amount of exercise. "Hmm, go ahead and start your cool-down, just light stretches for today," he told her.

Sakura was confused, the one thing her sensei had never done, no matter how late he arrived or even if all she had stamina left to do was jog around the clearing was cut the lessons short. "Sensei?" she questioned, a tinge of worry in her voice. *Have we ever seen him this serious,* she thought to herselves.

*Huh... dunno... We didn't do it!* came the reply.

"There's something important to discuss, before continuing," he explained, waiting until she began stretching to keep from cramping up before he continued. "Sakura, you've been channeling chakra to boost your stength and speed, correct?" he asked.

*Uh oh... I think we kinda did do it, though there waasn't much of a choice,* she told her inner self before replying, "Well, that is... kinda? I know it's like cheating but I just -have- to improve somehow, and if you stop these lessons I'll be forced to-"

"Sakura." he interrupted, cutting off the babble in the making. "While it's true that ninja do not generally channel chakra that way aside from short bursts, as I'd thought you were doing, it's not because it's cheating. Someone who doesn't take every advantage they can make for themselves is not a ninja. The reason is that in battle, that kind of concentration... it's impossible. It's surprising you can do so even for training, actually." *Even I can't keep it up like that...*

Glad that her stretches made it natural to be looking away, the genin hesitantly replied, "Well, it's only a little strength... adding speed takes too much chakra, or really amazing strength, and hurts my muscles, too - I tried to channel a whole lot and pick up a boulder like Tsunade-hime in the Battle of Masaki's Glade when we were taught the technique in the Academy, and even though it worked it felt like my whole body was on fire for two days."

Kakashi's eye widened - he'd been to Masaki's Glade, and seen that boulder in the crater it left when it hit the Rain-nin troops. "How big was this boulder?"

Momentarily forgetting her worry, Sakura giggled at the memory. "Oh, it was huuuge," she laughed. "Nearly waist-high on an eight-year-old!"

"Hmm, a bit more reasonable than I was thinking," the man considered, "but still impressive in a student. A small but constant amount of chakra is only harder to maintain, however, which is what makes the way you've been training unsuited for use in battle."

The pink-tressed girl hesitated for a moment, before asking, "Kakashi-sensei, how much do you know about the Haruno bloodline limit?"

"Basically, it's another mind in the same body, allowing a second chance to notice important details or detect and resist genjutsu. At high levels, a Haruno-nin can perform even the most advanced ninjutsu without movement, as their inner self performs the neccessary seals."

"That's actually considered the chuunin-level ability, though the same kind of limits exist as normal for the chakra and control available to keep a chuunin from performing the kind of things you're probably thinking of. As an Academy student, we learn to learn to work in perfect unison with our two selves, to give perfect chakra control, while as genin the target is for both minds to be able to do different control exercises at the same time, or maintain one while performing a ninjutsu or genjutsu... Even without using that ability, I've always been good with control. Because Inner Sakura has been concentrating totally on chakra control, I've been able to have the attention to talk with you while training."

That was a more impressive ability than he'd thought, actually, and he wondered what the jounin level was considered to be, though such a secret was unlikely to be told even to him. Just keeping up two control exercises at once would normally take a high-class chuunin or special jounin. That still left the bigger issue, however.

"Maa, well, even such interesting discussions are not the same as a battle," he noted. "I'd wondered why you weren't using this style with your comrades in the morning spars aside from getting a bit more acrobatic in dodging. More importantly, you've been running close to chakra exhaustion each time, haven't you? Especially that first day, when you could barely even move. Such a dangerous habit is a bad thing to form. If you misjudged it you could die, or at best be unconscious for days."

That stopped her cool-down, and Sakura turned to face him with a serious look. "Kakashi-sensei... you finally decided to teach me something, so I've been going for it with everything to become a stronger ninja... isn't that what we're supposed to do, as teacher and student? As for the mornings... I wanted to get better with this, before I revealed it even to them." *Especially to that man-stealing wench, you mean! SHANNARO!* Ignoring her inner self's shadow boxing and predictions of the ultimate victory of love for the moment, Sakura pressed on. "What battle lasts for three hours, anyway, even the Siege of Bellflower Pass was over faster than that once the walls were breached and actual fighting started."

"Hmm... Yes, we were in and through with that in little more than two, as I recall..." Watching as his student finished her cool-down set, the jounin considered a large number of things, but paying forward his debt to the past won out, as usual. He called out, attracting her attention again. "You've studied enough of the forms to begin. Tomorrow, we will not meet here to study."

The girl's face fell and her shoulders hunched in despair. *Even though I gave it this much, to learn something unique and powerful...*

"Sakura," he said, more warmly. "Tomorrow afternoon, rest and recover your chakra. The day after tomorrow, we'll meet here and spar. If you can maintain the necessary strength for this style, I'll acknowledge your ability and we will continue."

If she'd had the energy left, Sakura would have been hopping around in joy, just from the relief that he was't going to give up on her or go into some long lecture about how the shinobi arts aren't meant to be played at and she should take them more seriously. As it stood she did a happy little dance in place while her inner self proclaimed Kakashi's impending defeat as well as that of her rivals in love.

The next day was a mix of excitement and apprehension for Sakura - her mind spun with strategies she might try, the glorious future of success, and the hotly denied but lingering specter of failing this all-important trial. Remembering Kakashi's words about the term 'cheating' not being applicable as a ninja, she considered setting traps in the area to try to catch him off guard, but decided that he was more likely to toss her into them herself and that anything strong enough to be worth the effort against a jounin was too dangerous for a sparring session.

There was another edge she could could give herself, but it would mean spending all the pay from last week's mission, and probably her allowance as well... Worse, it would mean sucking up to either Kikuko-oni or the Freaky Twins, because genin didn't have the clearance needed to buy them. She waffled over it for almost half an hour before finally deciding on her sister, because even if she had some weird thing going on with that cinnamon-stick-chewing guy and Kiba's sister of all people, at least she didn't hang around with Ino-pig like her brothers, and aside from Tenten the blonde thorn in her side was the absolute LAST person she wanted getting any hint about her new skills until it was far, far too late.

With that thought in mind and knowing her sister wasn't on any missions at the moment she'd made her way to the training area favored by a fair number of Konoha's mid-ranked ninja. As usual it was filled with the sounds of a fight, but one of words for once instead of fists and chakra.

"By the kami, Amaboshi, you are -such- a jerk sometimes! That's IT, we're through!" The woman's screech had the distinctive growling undertones of an Inuzuka. From the sound of things, maybe whatever that weird thing had been was in the past.

Coming through the light screen of brush, she could see her sister Kikuko shrugging at the hapless male who'd incurred the wrath of their mutual girlfriend. "Don't look at me," the older Haruno said, more calmly. "I figured it was a weekend thing, she's the one who wanted to keep you."

Sakura shuddered despite herself. She didn't care how acceptable it was in the shinobi world, where strong bloodlines were critical and too many male ninja got killed off compared to female heirs, who often stayed in administrative or non-ninja careers. It was going to be one-on-one, her and a guy, for sure! *That's right! Sasuke-kun is for me and no one else! Shannaro!* Inner Sakura agreed.

Setting aside any awkward feelings, Sakura put on her sweetest face and walked closer to where her sister was now rubbing her girlfriend's back, trying to calm the fuming Inuzuka down, three nin-dogs noting her approach with quiet yips. "Ah, please excuse the intrusion," the younger Haruno began quietly. "Maybe it's a bad time, but I could I talk with Kikuko-onee?"

The couple shared a look, then Hana gently shook herself loose. "Go on," she told Kikuko. "I'm no good company right now, I'll just go for a run with the guys," she said, stroking the ears of one of her dogs.

"Okay... Still on for tonight, or you want to take a rain check?" Kikuko asked. They had been planning on dinner and a club with Amaboshi, but at least part of that plan was now obviously void.

"Sure," the taller girl grinned. "We wouldn't want any of those poor boys to go on being all heartbroken because we were off the market. Somebody might do something permanent!" They shared a laugh before the dark-haired teen bounded off into the trees, her canine companions following to either side.

"So what's up, squirt?" Kikuko asked at last.

A vein pulsed at Sakura's temple and her cheek twitched, but she forcibly kept her expression sweet and voice even as she explained, "Now that I've graduated and joined a genin team, I need to put together a pack for longer missions. I was hoping you'd buy something for me at the chemists... I have the money for it, of course."

Kikuko grinned deviously and treated her younger sibling to an elbow in the ribs. "Chasing that Uchiha boy going well then? I'm not sure I support you moving into -that- kind of a relationship so fast, little sis..."

Slapping the offending limb away Sakura shouted, "NOT THAT!" *Not a bad idea, though!* Inner Sakura put in with the image of some improbably intricate gesticulation, but her public self wasn't even going to get into that topic if she could help it. "I want you to get me some soldier pills, damn it! Not... that!"

Gasping theatrically, Kikuko pressed her hands into her cheeks. "My goodness! The gracious movie-star kunoichi is actually planning to go on a -mission!- Be careful, you could break a nail, or get all icky!"

"Onee-san..."

"And soldier pills... surely such an example of feminine perfection couldn't be inadequate in any way..."

"O-NEE-san..."

"I know, it's so you can offer one to your leading man with a demure smile and a little smudge on your cheek, so he can be revived and take care of the bad guy for you!"

Fists clenched at her sides and eyes pressed shut in annoyance as she did her best to hold back her temper, the younger girl ground out, "Are you going to help or not, o-nee-SAAAN! ?"

Giving over for now, Kikuko wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulders and sang, "Hai haaai... you shouldn't let yourself get so tense, imouto-chan, it'll give you wrinkles." She laughed and squeezed a little tighter as her sister growled and muttered about being a bitch, no where -near- quietly enough. "Tch, such attitudes," she scolded. "Unless you want me to show you what I've learned from Hana-chan about dealing with uppity bitches?"

Shuddering again, Sakura was quick to reply, "No thanks, big sister." Taking deep breaths, she relaxed as much as she could, and they headed back into the settled sections of Konoha.

She'd actually gotten the idea from Hana's younger brother, who'd mentioned once that many of his family's techniques had chakra demands that required the use of a soldier pill to keep them up at the genin level when they'd covered common ninja medicines at the Academy. Like she'd told Kakashi-sensei, she'd only been using chakra for a small amount of strength, because it would take too much to do more than that let alone increase her speed... but with the ability of a soldier pill to boost chakra production, she could get around her depressingly small reserves and go wild when she faced the jounin the following day. That had been the other reason to approach Kikuko - if an Inuzuka was good enough for her, a variation on their tactics should be good enough for her little sister.

And the thing about giving one to Sasuke-kun... Well, if her sister had been totally useless at romance she wouldn't have been going steady with Hana for almost a year now. She'd definitely have to keep it in mind if the situation ever came up, it was pure gold even if it was exactly the kind of attitude that had kept her from going to her family for extra training after years of trying to find her own path as a ninja.

Team Seven had done a mission that morning, providing birthday party entertainment at the Tsukino clan compound for the Main Family's youngest, who'd just finished his first year at the Academy. Sakura had put together an acrobatic routine, Sasuke had demonstrated some impressive fire-type ninjutsu, and Tenten had fun with trick kunai and shuriken throwing, with targets all around her and using deflection shots to even hit ones behind cover... and the little runts had still been horrible.

Worse, Kakashi-sensei had made them treat it as if they'd been providing security for a noble's social gathering, so they had to constantly be on the alert for him as a supposedly enemy ninja trying to spy or 'assassinate' the guest of honor. Who naturally had thought that having the famous Copycat Ninja randomly popping up beside him to stuff a chocolate into his mouth was the best part of the show.

"Shingo is SUCH a brat," she grumped as she made her way to the training area afterwards. "And if anything, Hokage-sama's grandson is worse! Me and my classmates were nothing like that at their age." A particular incident involving slingshots, fertilizer from a certain flower shop, and kids who had made cracks about a girl who lived at said flower shop and her new best friend tried to present itself from her memory, along with others, but was quickly repressed again. Sakura was absolutely a perfect angel, then as now.

"At least Moegi-chan wasn't a total wild mountain monkey," she thought aloud, before refocusing her attention in the issue at hand since she'd almost arrived. A hand drifted to her tool pouch and traced the outline of the little bottle inside. "I paid a whole lot of money for just ten of the things, should I really use one only for a spar?" she wondered. "No, not just a spar, this is a test, a test that will determine my future as a kunoichi. Just stealing a bento won't cut it this time, and it's not about relying on team mates... it's about victory in love and war and about being reliable myself. I have to go for it with everything." Her expression firmed up, decision made.

At least this time she wouldn't be facing Kakashi-sensei after a sleepless night and no breakfast, though her nervous stomach had refused anything more than a few bites of trail mix and a sports drink for lunch. Sakura pulled out the pill bottle and twisted the top until the opening was big enough to shake one out, then closed it again and replaced the vial in her pouch. She weighed the little red-brown ball thoughtfully in her hand.

It was waterproofed to keep from being ruined if a ninja had to swim, was drenched with water ninjutsu, or just caught in the rain, so she could probably slip it under her tongue now to be ready. On the other hand, the coating was only beeswax so it would melt in body heat. She wasn't sure how long the effect would last either, since there hadn't been time to experiment the previous night. Originally the pills were intended to provide enough energy to keep active for days, but that was swallowing one whole and letting it dissolve slowly in the stomach, not the kind of quick boost effect she was planning. Deciding against it until the moment came, she sat down with her back to one of the training logs to wait for her sensei.

She didn't have long to wait, he'd been getting less and less tardy to these lessons as they'd gone on so it was only a few minutes before the jounin puffed into existence with a little cloud of smoke and a swirl of leaves. She rose respectfully to greet him, getting a lazy wave in return. For all of that, Kakashi's one visible eye was alert and his voice serious as he said, "Well, no need to draw it out. Are to ready to begin?"

Face serious, Sakura popped the soldier pill into her mouth, crushing it between her teeth and spreading the bitter powder under her tongue as she stretched her back and rolled her shoulders. Immediately she could feel her body begin to hum with the rush of chakra as saliva turned it into a paste and the medicine was absorbed directly into the large blood vessels there. Grimacing at the taste, she took a stance and blustered, "I'm ready, Kakashi-sensei... Are you ready for me?"

Inner Sakura had already gone into a meditative trance to concentrate on controlling the unfamiliar bounty of chakra and channeling it into her muscles, and she hopped experimentally from one foot to the other, marveling at the feeling... could this be what Sasuke-kun felt like all the time? The pink-haired girl grinned ferally, then blasted into an attack routine on her sensei, who from all outward appearances was still just standing there with a lazy slouch.

As expected, he reacted immediately, batting aside the opening punches and hopping over the low spinning kick they led into, forcing her to double over at the waist and push off into a flip to dodge as he came back down with a stomp aimed at her extended knee. Sakura danced in a swirl of her own inner fire, and the flame danced with her, seeping its warmth into her bones even as it reached hungrily for her opponent.

Two sweaty, dusty, brutally strenuous hours later, Sakura could feel the effect of the soldier pill starting to fade, and her control had long faltered to the point she was back at her normal speed. Her outfit was blood-dark with soaked in sweat, her palms, knees, and one shoulder had been scuffed raw when their running battle had passed over a patch of bare stone, and her hair had been hastily tied into a sloppy knot at the base of her neck when her hitae-ate had come loose under the constant bouncing and jumping and left it to fall into her face, but the girl was determined to see the battle through to the end. Kakashi still looked fresh as a daisy, the rat bastard, though he'd gotten a leaf caught comically in his brush of white spikes.

Dropping backward into a bridge to avoid a high kick, Sakura continued the motion into a half dozen backward somersaults to get some breathing room. She pulled out the soldier pill vial with one hand, twisting the top around with her thumb in the same motion, and was about to take another when Kakashi was suddenly right in front of her face, hand interposed to cover the top of the bottle.

"That's enough," he told her seriously. "You haven't used such medicines before, have you student?"

Closing the container again and putting it away, Sakura worried that he was going to stop the lessons because of that, despite his speech about a ninja making every advantage she could. "No," she admitted. "This is the first time. I remembered one of my classmates talking about using them in this way because his family taijutsu needed large amounts of chakra."

"Hmm. There -are- a few clans that do such things... More importantly, using more than one in a short period can have bad side effects, so you shouldn't do that unless it's a serious situation," he ordered. "The equipment shop should have told you this, if it was your first time buying them."

"Ah, well... I had my sister get them for me, since genin aren't allowed to buy advanced medicines without special permission," Sakura explained. "They might even have assumed she was getting them for her... friend, Inuzuka Hana-san."

Kakashi blinked and considered this. He'd been a genin for such a short time, and so long ago, he didn't really remember if there'd been any such restrictions then. Things had been different at that time in any case. "Ah, is that so?" he drawled, to cover his musing. "Well, the test was to see if you could keep the control needed for chakra-boosted strength up for a long battle, so I suppose it's okay. I expect you not to use them for training tomorrow, or for at least another day after that, though. Oh, and don't take sleeping pills tonight either, or you'll die."

His eye curved up in a little inverted smile, tone utterly at odds with the actual words. Sakura smiled sickly and waved as he wandered off, the girl still panting lightly and still buzzing with energy even as the literal chakra surge faded away.

Then, as her breathing finally recovered, she squealed with excitment and punched at the air, kicking up her heels joyously. "OH HELL YEAH! I WIN, I WIN, I -WIN-, SHANNARO!" Shouting and jumping happily she danced around the clearing, then decided to run and find her sister to give her a big hug for the help.

Pausing only to collect her forehead protector where it had been hung on a bush after coming loose she reflected that if the other girl wanted to complain about how grimy she was... well, Kikuko deserved it for the constant cracks about movie-star sensibilities.

continued in part B


	12. Team 7: Strife 2 of 2

txy07b_t7_strife

2011-11-10 - chopped in half for FFn

continued from part A

Kakashi didn't totally ignore the points Neshan had raised, stepping up the team training in the mornings and incorporating some of the teamwork drills Minato-sensei had used into their missions, but there was only so far the parameters of, say, walking a kennel's worth of dogs, could be stretched to simulate a genuine field mission. No, any real work to those ends would have to wait until they started in on C-ranks - a good bandit hunt or caravan escort or two and everything should fall neatly into place. Thankfully, they'd just about done their quota of the basics and it would soon be time for that.

*How often can Madame Shijimi lose her cat, anyway,* he wondered after their fifth time returning the skittish pet. Kakashi could tell by the looks his subordinates were exchanging that they were getting fed up with such simple duties as well as they made their way out into the sunny afternoon.

Dodging a booze-swilling, grey haired civilian with a travel pack as he headed toward the room where mission requests were taken, Sakura was the one to break first. "Ne, Kakashi-sensei, can we please get a more interesting mission soon? If we wanted to weed gardens and find lost pets, we wouldn't have needed to spend five years at the Academy!"

"Hn. These missions... There's no challenge in them," Sasuke agreed. "I need to become stronger. Smelling strongly of mutts does not count." He would never, -ever- admit it, but some of the heroes in those samurai romances had an entertaining way with quips and comebacks. Unsettling an enemy in combat could be a valuable edge, he justified.

It had nothing to do with the way Tenten would grin when he came out with one. At all. And he skipped the worst of the mushy stuff in favor of fight scenes, too. Perhaps he should look into supplementing his taijutsu with a sword? It could be useful in an extended encouter or if he needed to conserve chakra. He wasn't tall enough to get the best use of a long blade yet, but maybe a good solid ninja-to, and a chokuto when he'd reached his full growth...

Oblivious to his musings, even Tenten still nodded agreement with Sakura's request.

"Well... I suppose I can ask Hokage-sama if he has a C-rank mission that's suitable tomorrow," the jounin agreed after a moment. "There's usually something going on... Hm, in that case, the three of you should probably take this afternoon off from training to put together your field supplies - a week's worth is the standard pack. If not tomorrow there'll be something within a couple of days. Well, ja ne..." Flipping open his little book, the masked jounin wandered off, down the street towards Konoha Hospital.

Awkwardness forgotten, the two girls traded high fives and even Sasuke smiled minutely, before they dispersed to follow their instructions.

That moment of camraderie didn't last, unfortunately. Sasuke actually making eye contact to grunt a greeting to Tenten the next morning when he'd ignored Sakura as usual was all it took to get the younger kunoichi fuming again, and the brunette wasn't about to go intentionally setting her off.

Especially with the prospect of something more interesting than yet another lame chore with a thin disguise of ninja training layered on top of it in the offing if the 'team' could just keep it together.

Kakashi was two and a half hours late that day - on the longer end, but by no means a record for him. It was still plenty of time for the tension between the two girls to have ratcheted up to a high degree, and twin shouts of "YOU'RE LATE!" assaulted the masked jounin's ears.

"Hmm, well, I was just on my way when I saw a cow with its head stuck in a fence, and I had to help it get free," he explained, before brushing it off. "More importantly, we should hurry up to the Hokage's tower or all the C-ranks will be assigned before we get there."

"He says that, but he's the one we're waiting for," Sakura muttered. Despite herself, Tenten couldn't help but agree as they (finally!) headed off to get a better mission.

Since the new Academy semester hadn't started up yet, Umino Iruka was helping with mission assignments again today, and the troubled look on his face was plain when they requested a higher ranked one. His eyes flicked from Sakura, to Sasuke, and finally Tenten before coming to rest on their captain, worry over the preparedness of his former charges warring openly with the knowledge that the first were two of the best and their team mate had already been training for a year... that kind of inability to hide his thoughts was one of the main reasons he'd never risen higher in rank, though there were other factors that made him glad enough to remain a chuunin assigned to teaching or administrative duties as well.

The Sandaime looked on with quiet amusement as the internal struggle was resolved, and the Academy sensei passed him the list of C-rank missions without protest, but still shooting the old man a look that begged him to pick an easy one for these first-timers.

Sarutobi scanned down the page quickly with a serious face, then selected a mission scroll holding the details from the rack to one side. "Hmm, this one should do," he decided. Handing it off to Kakashi, he quickly summarized the assignment. "A supply shipment is being sent to the Rice Country border station, bringing food and other common items. As this trip does not include pay for the border guards, only casual bandits can be expected, so a single team will be sent to accompany them. The caravan is forming up at the South Gate stockyard to leave by mid day."

Kakashi gave the scroll a quick once over, mainly a glance at the included map, before rolling it back up and giving one of his eye-smiles. "Thank you, Hokage-sama, we'll be on our way then."

Four days of uneventful travelling later, the end was nearly in sight - the caravan master had told them they should reach the border post within the next day's travel as the wagons were pulled off into a camp area to rest the oxen and and make a firepit to cook stew for the mid-day meal. It had been a pleasant trip so far all in all, moving through the countryside at a fast walk but not so quickly as to raise too much dust from the road, dry with the continuing sunny summer weather.

Tenten was finishing up her lunch when a sharp poke in the ribs made her look over at Sakura. The girl was scowling fiercely while across the campfire Sasuke was staring dreamily Tenten's way, until he noticed her looking at least. Shaking himself, the last loyal Uchiha turned away quickly, but not before his rapidly reddening face gave away where his thoughts had been wandering.

*Ohmigosh, that's so cute,* the brunette thought to herself, suddenly realising just why Sakura was so sure the older girl was 'trying to steal her man.' She'd caught glimpses of the occasional blush before but figured it was just the frosty Uchiha starting to come out of his shell a bit - with that look on his face, it was obvious he'd actually, finally noticed girls. *Just my bad luck that it was me he picked to crush on, darn it.*

Without waiting for her to put down her bowl the Haruno grabbed Tenten's arm in a painfully tight grip, the tin dish clattering to the ground as she dragged the brunette off to one side of the temporary camp. "You say you're only interested in this Hyuuga Neji," she hissed accusingly. "So why are you still stringing Sasuke-kun along!"

"Ne, Sakura, I'm really not! Come on, let's not fight..." With little hope of actually getting her point across, Tenten tried to change the subject. "Hey, your chakra control is really good, right? Kakashi-sensei gave me this healing ninjutsu scroll but it's still a little beyond my reach, and I don't really have time to work on a third specialty anyway." She pulled her pack off and rummaged in a side pocket for a few seconds. "Here it is! Why don't you give it a look?"

Slapping the peace offering aside, Sakura growled, "You think I'd be satified with your castoffs, TEN-YEN?"

Stillness, the tensed feeling of a mountainside after a crack of thunder but before the avalanche jarred loose has begun to move. "You've been looking for another fight for days," Tenten observed quietly. An impressive amount of malicious intent radiated off of her, making Kakashi look up sharply from his book at the building confrontation. "I don't know why you won't listen to me... but you just bought one. SO DIE AND GO TO HELL, YOU JEALOUS -BITCH!-"

Dropping the scroll the older girl spun, building momentum for a truly vicious smash with the brass butt of her favorite weapon... a strike that whiffed through the air as Sakura dropped away under it, feet coming up inside the arc of her follow-through to land punishing kicks in the center of the brunette's chest and the nerve cluster under her left arm. The sun and moon fork went spinning away as the arm spasmed and Tenten hopped backwards, gasping in shock and pain. She kept retreating as her team mate pressed the attack, spinning on her hands and spreading her legs into a rising hurricane kick that led into a flip and an aerial stomp, then an uppercut from the crouch of that landing.

By that time the older girl had drawn a quartet of kunai in her good hand even though the left was still tingling and limp, but she hesitated, not truly wanting to do permanent harm even in the face of such an offensive comment. *She's just being a brat,* she tried to tell herself. *She doesn't know how hard I've had to fight against that kind of attitude.* Remembering those times only fueled her anger, though, and the frown of concentration twisted into a wrathful sneer as her arm came up for a throw.

"Fufufufuu..." Sarcastic laughter and a golf clap interrupted the motion, as a form melted out of the large boulder sheltering the campsite from the wind. "I was going to wipe out the defenders for this caravan so my group could replenish our suppplies, since it seems we've run short... but it looks like you two are ready to take care of each other for me." The man was short but massively muscled, about as broad across the shoulders as he was tall. "It's always fun, watching a couple of cuties fight... don't stop, don't stop! If you amuse me, I'll even let the winner live, and give her a -special- prize!"

He pursed his lips in an exaggerated way and mimed a kiss, the gesture even more grotesque on his homely, squashed looking face. A Hidden Stone forehead protector with the slash of a nuke-nin was worn as a bandanna over his bald head. Heavy, khaki canvas pants with oversized pockets and a dark brown vest completed his outfit, while a truly massive axe rode on his back and a few shuriken graced the carrying strap across the man's bulldog chest.

"Hmm, Hajiku no Ishikiri, the Stone-Splitter," Kakashi observed, suddenly standing between the two girls, one hand on a shoulder of each. "I'll need to have a talk with my subordinates later, but for now I'll be your opponent."

"Sharingan Kakashi," the nukenin acknowledged. "Heh... that's fine, my own subordinates are more than enough for yours. Come on out! This... should be fun."

At his signal, senbon and kunai flew from the brush at the edge of the clearing, forcing Sakura and Tenten to dodge away while Kakashi simply knocked the flying weapons out of the air with a kunai in one hand while raising his hitae-ate to uncover his hidden eye with the other. At the same time, a pair of hands emerged from the ground to grab Sasuke's ankles in the 'Shinju Zanshu' Kakashi had used on him during the bell test. Not one to fall for the same trick twice, he crouched and stabbed each of them with a kunai as soon as he felt them take hold, then leapt clear as a second stone-nin climbed out of the ground, clutching his damaged hands to his chuunin vest.

"You bastard!" he growled, retreating behind the hail of weapons from his still hidden companions. "I'll kill you for that!" Unsurprisingly, his forehead protector and those of the second chuunin and the genin kunoichi who stepped out to meet him were also slashed like Hajiku's. The girl's wasn't originally from Hidden Stone, however, but the neighboring Hidden Grass. She quickly pulled out a roll of gauze and some medical tape and wrapped the wounds while their companion kept the Leaf genin occupied.

That chuunin was dressed in a similar tan body suit and slightly darker vest as the first, but where his partner was as bald as their captain his head was crowned in short, stiff, sandy blond hair cut into a flat-top style. Not wanting to use up all his weapons, he'd formed some quick hand seals, then leaned over to place both hands on a nearby rock.

"Doton: Funpi Sekihi no jutsu!" finger-long shards blasted away from the dog-sized stone, a lethal geyser of sharp edges that he swept after the leaf-nin as they dodged like water from a hose.

"Finally warming up to me, Kachinkachin?" the injured one asked the cloak clad, long haired ex-Grass-nin as she finished her rough field dressings. "Perseverance wins after all!"

"Idiot! This is no time for flirting, Kasui," the kunoichi rebuked him, "and if you don't stop calling me 'kachinkachin,' you'll find some senbon when you try to sit. Are you helping, or are Gansou and I going to have to do all the work?"

Clenching his hands into fists with a slight grimace of pain, the bald nuke-nin beat them together experimentally, then gave a cruel grin. "Heh, just watch me, Kin!" he boasted. "You won't have time to do a thing before I crush these Leaf brats!" He charged as Gansou's ninjutsu ended, lashing out at Sasuke with a blisteringly fast taijutsu combo that kept the genin on the retreat, only barely able to dodge or block.

Hajiku and Kakashi, meanwhile, had gotten into a battle of sand clones, half a dozen more or less damaged copies of themelves dueling up and down the face of the boulder while the two jounin jockeyed for position, each trying to maneuver the other into leaving an opening or giving himself enough time to prepare a more powerful ninjutsu, and the civilian caravaneers had quickly barricaded themselves on the far side of the wagons with their oxen.

Tiring of the dance, the stocky nuke-nin drew his axe and slammed it into the summit of the boulder with incredible force, splitting the massive stone evenly in two. The shockwave destroyed both sets of suna bunshin. Jumping back from the strike the Copycat landed in a half-crouch on one half as it settled, Hajiku taking position on the opposite piece. Their squads likewise seperated, Sakura taking advantage of the break to use a soldier pill.

The young Haruno had discovered first hand the problems Kakashi had warned her about, the stress of real combat with her life at stake proving far more of a challenge to the concentration needed to use her chakra than even the most gruelling practice, and the desperate need for any edge available making it impossible to hold back any ounce of strength or speed she could produce. The fact that two out of three of their enemies were chuunin, not genin, only made it worse - it was all the three Leaf could do to keep Kasui and Gansou from cornering them, leaving Kin to snipe with her senbon essentially at will. As a consequence Sakura's reserves had been bitten into sharply by only a few minutes of combat, between the need to boost both attributes to the maximum and diminished control using it less efficiently.

She could feel her damn hitae-ate coming loose again, too, and with a growl she tugged it off then brushed her hair back and pulled it into place on her forehead to keep the pink mass out of her face, keeping a wary eye on the missing-nin team all the while.

The Stone-Splitter's hands flashed into a short seal combination, one Kakashi recognised but didn't bother countering since the simple jutsu's effect was nothing more than a set-up for later use, and if anything letting his opponent burn chakra to do it quickly was probably a better tactic.

"Doton: Saiseki Enshuujou no jutsu!" The rock where Hajiku stood abruptly shattered into thousands of fist-sized chunks. Some fell away into the cleft between the two sections but most stayed in place, rough egdes providing too much friction to immediately slide loose. The Stone-nin continued into a second set of seals without a pause, the sight prompting Kakashi to memorize the unfamiliar technique with the blood-red Sharingan eye in his scarred left socket. "Kataiishi Sankaku no jutsu!" Hajiku announced at the end of a moderate length series of hand seals, the crumbled stone at his feet flowing up his legs and clinging to his body, forming an armored layer complete with a rough helmet and two large, rounded shields on the forearms.

"How do you like my Hard Stone Armor, Sharingan Kakashi?" he gloated. "I'm sure you studied it well... too bad you'll never get to try it, because with my next move, the battle is over. Tenseki Juudan!" He rolled himself into a rocky ball, the head of his huge axe protruding almost comically from one side like the key on a wind-up toy. The ex-Iwa-nin began spinning rapidly before hurtling across the gap toward Kakashi.

Quickly dodging away from the strike and several more that followed the Leaf jounin quipped, "Hmm, well, that is an impressive jutsu, but... it seems a rolling stone gathers no moss."

Bellowing with fury the nuke-nin uncurled again and pursued, shaking the earth with the impacts as he slammed his axe into the ground just inches short of his opponent again and again. Kakashi led him futher away, the need to insulate the civilians and his team from the collateral damage that was the usual result of a high level battle having kept Kakashi from really opening up with his repetoir until then.

The genin's battle wasn't going quite so well, unfortunately. Whenever Sasuke or Tenten would try to pull back to use their ranged attacks, the Stone taijutsu specialist Kasui would slip around and keep them in close, and when Sakura tried to strike back she'd be driven away by Gansou's ninjutsu or still more needles from Kin, who all the time was getting small but telling shots in even if she didn't have the accuracy needed to hit specific nerve clusters or vital points.

"This just isn't working," Tenten observed, breath coming in heavy gasps. "We need a new strategy, or *any* strategy to begin with," she complained quietly from her point of the triangle formation. "I'm actually close to running out of hidden weapons, and there's been no time to unseal any more..." She trailed off and her eyes narrowed as she remembered a trick one of the teams she'd been hired to help train in pursuit tactics had pulled on her, but setting up the idea it had given her could be a problem with the way Team Seven got along - it wouldn't do any good if their enemies got all the details while she tried to explain to her team mates, and they hadn't formed the kind of rapport needed to understand what each other were thinking from gestures and scattered phrases.

While trying to figure out a way around that, she slipped a hand into her back tool pouch, pulling out what looked like a deck of playing cards and stripped off the wrapper.

"What's that for?" the Grass kunoichi sneered, the nuke-nin trio having also backed off to catch their breath for a few seconds. "You going to challenge us to a game of poker for your lives?"

Taking the cue as a basis to buy a little more time, the brunette cut and shuffled the deck. "Oh, you never know, it might be interesting," she replied. "Maybe a different game, though... ever tried fifty-two pickup?" Ignoring her enemies' confused expressions, she she split the deck again into two stacks and jammed them under the cuffs of her fingerless gloves to be out of the way for the moment. Taking a quick step to one side she pulled Sasuke's near hand toward her belly and ordered, "Throw high!" before using the 'Henge' technique to become an oversized shuriken and fall into his grip.

After only a moment's surprise the Uchiha did just that, spinning to gain momentum before launching the two foot wide throwing star into the sky. Reaching the highest point of the steep arc the girl reverted to her natural form, quickly whipping out her weapon sealing scroll and opening it, then tossing it forcefully back toward the ground while holding the loose end so it would unroll in the air and delay her descent just one more crucial second. She used the time to slice a fingertip on each hand for fresh blood. Descending, she swiped the bleeding fingertips across the long line of storage seals, grabbing and throwing the weapons that appeared in a flurry of wood and steel at the cursing, evading missing-nin.

Kin finally found a moment to return fire as the Leaf girl neared the ground, a glancing blow to the abdomen that barely drew blood but was enough to throw off her landing, and which tangled in the pink silk of her top.

There was the crunch of breaking bone from her leg as Tenten struck the ground and went down, the jarring impact making her bite the inside of her cheek deeply as well. Despite that, the Leaf kunoichi pulled herself into a sitting positon before spitting out a mouthful of blood and giving a gory grin. "Paper wraps rock," she gasped, forming a ram seal.

All across the battleground, the explosive tags she'd wrapped around the various weapons as she threw them detonated... including the one on the kunai Kin had grabbed to throw back. The clanless girl was blasted sideways to land against the wheel of one of the carts, mercifully unconscious. Sasuke was knocked for a loop as well but still aware and uninjured, leaving just Sakura to finish cleaning up.

The Stone and Grass missing-nin were much worse off, having been in the middle of the field of exsplosions and when the smoke finally cleared all three were looking heavily charred, though since she was at the outer edge the enemy kunoichi had gotten off the lightest, mostly having just been bowled over since her heavy cloak stopped the worst of the scattering debris.

Gansou was worst off, having been in the middle of sealing for a mudslide ninjutsu to take advantage of the scattered weapons by throwing them back at the Leaf-nin, and hence unprepared to roll with the follow-up attack. He lay limply where he'd landed from the explosions. Kasui was a bit unsteady but well enough able to keep his feet, at least until Sakura's heels plowed into his jaw one after the other in a roundhouse kick. Already concussed by the force of the blasts he went down and stayed there as well.

Finding herself left alone against the enemy who'd proven most able at dodging her needles, the former Grass kunoichi bit off a curse and growled, "I just knew it was a bad idea, traveling with those morons." Seeing the pinkette bound towards her to finish the job, flipping across the cratered and weapon strewn battlefield as if it was nothing, she grimaced and called out, "Hey, are you going to chase me, or take care of your team mates? They don't look so good, you know..." A pathetic attempt at a distraction, but it seemed to work, and the nuke-nin slipped away among the giant, mushroom-studded trees before anything more could go wrong.

For example, getting caught by Sharingan Kakashi after he pulled his fist back out through the hole it had punched in Hajiku's axe on its way to the man's chest. The blow hadn't immediately killed the former Stone-nin but he was definitely out of the fight. From the look he sent her way the infamous Copycat Ninja was well aware of her arriving on the edge of their battle ground, and if he hadn't been more anxious to check on his team after the huge explosion she'd undoubtedly have been next.

Kin wavered indecisively for a moment, but finally hauled the bald man up onto a shoulder before leaving - for all that he was uglier than a mountain ape and had a temper to match, Hajiku was actually half-decent to the dark haired girl, and besides that he was the one who knew where this "Kimimaro" they were supposed to meet would be.

Kakashi was on the knife edge of chakra exhaustion as his 'Raikiri' faded away. He only took a moment to confirm that the Stone jounin was shocked into unconsciousness and that the new presence he'd sensed approaching was only the genin kunoichi before pulling his hitae-ate down to cover the chakra-hungry Sharingan eye, and hurrying back to check on his team. He'd hated to leave them alone in the first place, but with the destruction his opponent had been casually dealing out they could easily have been injured or killed without even intending to. Maybe the girl would help the jounin escape and maybe she wouldn't - with missing-nin you could never tell, especially when members of a group had come from different villages - but regardless his team was more important.

His heart clenched in his chest as he arrived at the camp area to find widespread devastation, and the student who'd simultaneously become his favorite and most troublesome kneeling tearfully over the other two where they'd been laid out by the wagons.

Looking up at his approach, she pleaded, "Kakashi-sensei, help me! It isn't working!" Then, much to his surprise, the pink haired genin flipped through the hand seals for the healing technique he'd given Tenten a scroll detailing, produced a soothing green glow between her hands, and pressed them against the older girl's abdomen where the tattered, blood-soaked top had been cut away.

Gently but firmly pushing her aside he knelt and examined the wound himself - charred skin sloughed off at his probing touch and exposed tissue gleamed wet with blood and fluids, but he couldn't see any fresh bleeding, and the tissue beneath the bits that brushed away was pink and as healthy as could be expected given that it had only been treated with the absolute most basic medic ninjutsu in existence, little more than sterilization and a bit of cell stimulation. He didn't know much more effective ones himself, or rather while he'd copied the techniques the knowledge of the body to properly apply them was something he'd never studied in detail. All the same, they should be enough to keep the girl alive, and what he couldn't deal with would be put right when real medic-nin arrived.

Course of action decided, he ordered, "Sakura, I don't usually use soldier pills, so I'll need one of yours. I'm almost out of chakra right now." As the girl scrambled to comply, he looked up at her, and for once saw his student without a ghost hiding her face. "You did a good job," he told her, eye screwed up with a rare, truly genuine smile. "To achieve that jutsu on your first try... it's an amazing feat. The wound didn't close over because that's a much more advanced technique which even I can't do," he admitted, before popping the proffered medicine into his mouth and crushing it. Moments later his fastest dog summon was carrying a message to bring the medic-nin, and his own hands were engulfed in the radiance of a slightly more advanced healing ninjutsu.

On the man's other side Sasuke watched and listened and fumed at being so helpless, his balance still not recovered from the shockwave and rapid tumble when Tenten's body had knocked his legs out from under him. And just a little, he wondered at how his other team mate had improved, between that acrobatic taijutsu that was like nothing he'd ever seen, and mastering one of the most notoriously difficult class of ninjutsu in existence in a matter of minutes. Perhaps there was more to her than just another loud, annoying, clingy fan-girl after all?

Being so close, Kakashi had accompanied the caravan the rest of the way to the small border post while his intact students were sent back to Konoha with the medic-nin and Tenten. For all the girl's burn had been large and deep, neither it nor the internal damage from the shockwave would cause her any lasting difficulty, or even significant amounts of scarring. By the time she woke up it was nothing more than a large patch of tender new skin, with a thin ridge of scar tissue around the edges where there had been damage from the explosive tag's heat but not to the point of needing to be excised and regenerated.

It was still confusing to her, waking up in a comfy, firm bed in a sunny white-painted room, when her last memories were of being tossed into the air as a giant shuriken, locked in deadly combat. The realization that she must be in the hospital was logical enough after that, and looking around she saw her team mates were also in the room, which was a bit of a surprise. Maybe not so much in Sasuke's case, given what she'd finally figured out about him, but didn't Sakura hate her guts?

The Uchiha boy was leaning against a wall with crossed arms, brooding, but looked up when he heard her breathing pattern change. "You're awake," he said simply, prompting a faint gasp from Sakura, who froze indecisively where she sat reading a magazine.

"Yeah," Tenten replied, voice rough from disuse. She cleared her throat before asking, "I guess you guys got 'em, then?"

"Keh," Sasuke snorted disgustedly and went back to his sulk.

Setting her magazine aside, the Haruno girl finally spoke up. "Ah, well, it was mostly your attack, but that kunoichi threw one kunai back at you. It was still tangled in your shirt when you set the kibakufuda off. There wasn't much after that."

Still not moving from his critical position of holding up the wall, Sasuke made the variation of snort indicating irritation. "The explosive tag attack knocked one of the rock chuunin out and left the other easy prey for Sakura's new taijutsu, and the girl ran away after that. The one on the kunai stuck in your clothes tossed you into a wagon and knocked me off balance. Sakura found a healing ninjutsu scroll somewhere and figured it out after a few tries, then used it on the burn on your side. Then Kakashi finished with his enemy and summoned the medic-nin, who brought you back here." Summary complete, he pushed himself upright and left. The hospital's wall did not fall down, even without the support of the Uchiha clan, and the continuing evidence that he was not necessarily the center of existence lent an extra stomp to the boy's tread.

He knew he was being ridiculous. He knew that he should have realised people don't fit into neat little boxes for long, if at all. He knew that if they were really as useless as he imagined them, his two most annoying fangirls Ino and Sakura would have failed the sensei's tests like the rest of their contemporaries. He knew that he wasn't the only one who was allowed to change and become stronger.

It still stung his pride to have to admit he might have been wrong about things. It still rankled that he'd been unable to do anything but buy time against their enemies, that it was someone else who finished them off. It still struck at the deeply buried fear that he would never be able to match his brother, that he would never be able to achieve his vengeance. It still hurt that the first girl to ever come close to being worth his time in his eyes had gotten so badly injured, and it still confused him that he felt that way in the first place when he'd sworn to concentrate on increasing his capacity rather than worry about girly stuff like ... LIKING girls, and ... that kind of stuff.

He sulked along at full adolescent brood towards the Uchiha compound and the training grounds, where he'd at least be able to absorb himself in physical effort and stop thinking...

He remembered some of the physical efforts described in tantalyzingly euphemistic detail in those damn books he'd somehow gotten hooked into reading, and blushed. A pair of old ladies sitting on a bench outside the hospital agreed that it was the most darling thing as he passed, and if they were just their grand-daughters' age...

Thinking hard about shuriken, the different types of shuriken, care and maintenaince of shuriken, and the best ways of throwing shuriken, Sasuke sped up just a bit more.

In Tenten's hospital room, an awkward silence had fallen. The older girl, her hair free from its buns for once and trailing down past her shouders in loose waves, was still looking curiously at her female team mate, wondering why she'd bothered to visit, and Sakura was fidgeting nervously, staring down into her lap.

Finally, the youngest Haruno stood, bowed, and gave the brunette a repentant look. "I'm sorry, Tenten... even if I was angry, I shouldn't have used such insults, nor attacked you that time. And... I can tell that you really haven't been doing anything to lead Sasuke on, somehow he just noticed you like he never noticed me, before."

*So does that mean he's noticed her now, so she can apologise? Well, at least she's making the effort, and it's a better result than just winning against the girl again would have been, let alone how it looked like things were going.* Tenten nodded slowly, then replied, "Apology accepted." Her serious face lightened a bit, though still not enough to call it a smile. "I probably shouldn't have teased you quite so much, either, Sakura... Wanna try this again?" She patted the side of the bed invitingly.

The pink haired girl smiled then and sat as indicated, prompting an aswering smile in return. "I'd like that," she said, then reintroduced herself, "I'm Haruno Sakura, I like Sasuke and dango, and ..." She ran a finger across her hitae-ate, still in its new place on her forehead. "...and I'm a serious kunoichi. Would you like to be friends?" Her face kept its smile, even as her eyes began to glisten thinking of things she'd said and done, and bridges that might be too burnt for repair.

"I'm Tenten of the Leaf," the year-older girl replied, "I like studying new weapons and seals, and dango too. I'm also a serious kunoichi, and I'd love to be your friend." Though not understanding the full reasons behind the tear that trickled out of the other girl's eye, she wiped it away with a gentle hand and rubbed her back reassuringly.

Just outside the door, Kakashi let his hand fall from the handle. His one visible eye narrowed in thought, and the mask moved as he frowned contemplatively. Deciding not to get involved with crying females when the problem he'd been intending to confront seemed to have been worked out already, he turned away again - time enough to talk to them after reporting on the mission he'd just returned from.

As for that other thing... after the continuing dischord he'd decided against entering the kids in the upcoming Chuunin Selection Exam, but now he wasn't so certain. Of course, he'd thought things had worked themselves out before, too, so it would really depend on how the next week's team excercises went.

Nodding decisively, he pulled out his copy of Icha Icha Paradise and moseyed in the general direction of the Hokage's tower.

Sakura's eyes were still a bit red when she returned home that evening, after Tenten had been released. She rubbed the forehead protector on her brow again as she slid the door closed, then turned to see Kikuko on the couch, watching her with a curious look and a half-open trap manual in her hands. Instantly, the younger sister's expression clouded, and her eyes threatened to spill over again. "You were right, okay?" she bit out. "I was an idiot. Go ahead and laugh." Without waiting for a reply, she stormed up the stairs toward the sanctuary of her room.

Flabbergasted, Kikuko could only watch, and blink. The situation was the same on the second take, but still made no more sense. "Was that about... the movie-star thing? It couldn't have meant that much to her, could it?" the older girl wondered aloud. "Huh... Well, I suppose I can try not to treat her like such a kid any more, she did get into field duty after all."

Setting her manual aside, she headed to the kitchen to brew some sweet tea and get out the rice crackers... it looked like comfort foods were in order, and maybe a sisterly heart to heart.

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><p>(Would you like to know more?)<p>

* * *

><p>Hyouton - 'ice release' (ninjutsu) - "use a hyouton" in this context is roughly the same as "take a chill pill."<p>

This turned out to be much more of a Sakura-focused chapter than I'd expected - that's all right, it still ties up the loose ends from Tenten's and Sasuke will get his turn in their parts of the Chuunin Exam.

Sakura's mention of famous battles is from her study of ninja history - research and information gathering was her best ability before graduation, after all. Kakashi on the other hand, while too young to have been present (or even born yet) for Masaki's Grove, was in the first group through the walls at Bellflower Pass and so has a slightly different perspective on it than the history books. For those keeping score, yes, that is the battle Kabuto was found in the aftermath of and adopted by a Konoha medic-nin, Yakushi Washimaru. As the turning point in the Leaf-Stone war many stories are tied to it among the older generation of ninja.

Sakura is twelve, Kikuko is a month or so shy of fifteen, Jinrei and Kenshiro are just over sixteen, and Ichimaru is nineteen. Their mother is thirty six and their father two years older to the day.

"Kikuko-oni" (Demon-Kikuko) is not a typo, rather it's Sakura ragging on her sister as siblings are wont to do. She loves her family, it's just that a lot of the time she doesn't like them very much. It's the teenager thing, if shifted back a couple years due to the rate ninja kids have to grow up.

She has one more brother who hasn't appeared though he was mentioned in passing, his name is (somewhat uninmaginitively, as the first born son) Ichimaru, a jounin ANBU squad captain whose mask is based on a cat. As such, further details about him are classified. Her mother is also a Jounin and just going back to active status since Sakura graduated, considering it a nice break after eighteen years of raising children. Her father retired on disability after losing an arm just above the elbow eight years ago - he recently obtained a nin-puppeteer style replacement but as that art is unfamiliar is still working on mastering it to the degree needed to be confident in combat again. He has also found that he likes having time with his kids, rather than being constantly away on missions.

On the subject of ninja and polyamorous relationships - To nip any protests in the bud, this isn't just me 'being a guy' and thinking that multiple girls are cool, because more than one other person in a relationship is more like adding an exponent to the difficulty of accomodating each other's personalities than adding to it, rather it's a logically derived conclusion from what we know of the ninja world. (If it WAS that, Sakura wouldn't be squicked by the idea, for one thing! There ARE no ugly kunoichi in the series, and I'd give even odds that even Akamichi girls are hot, just more filled out.) First, special bloodline abilities really are a critical factor in whether a ninja is strong or merely average for the same amount of effort, and in this version at least the ability to consciously mold and use chakra is in itself a trait only present in a minority of the population, making matches between those with the ability essential to continue a ninja clan.

Second, we're consistently shown around twice as many male ninja as female among genin, and less than that at higher levels - only one of Akatsuki is a woman, and otherwise there's been all of one each in chuunin (Shizune), ANBU (Yuugao, the one who found Hayate after Baki killed him in the break before the Chuunin finals), special jounin (Anko), jounin (Kurenai), and kage (Tsunade, though the one half-silhouetted image of the Mizukage in the lineup when Kakashi talks about the five great ninja countries is either female or bishonen, but given the number of the latter already there's no certainty) ranks and it's kind of arguable whether Shizune even counts, as I'm not including the Academy instructor (Suzume) among the field ninja. However, barring mass infanticide or widespread genetic disorders human birth rates are about equal, which means there's a lot more kunoichi or potential kunoichi than we've seen on field duty... and ninja on field duty often get killed, reducing the available male population. Similar concerns are also what drive them to get serious about relationships by fifteen or sixteen, and popular wisdom holds that a ninja who hasn't formed some kind of stable relationship by eighteen will probably die single, too devoted to the job to make time for other people and the extra emotional stress.

In such a case, a ninja gal can either take a chance on a civilian who won't understand her life style to begin with and may influence any children toward being unable to use chakra, fight over the boys who are around and possibly lose or suffer disabling injury in the heat of the moment, or try to find another kunoichi they can get along with in that way. Similarly, because it is so difficult to find a working three-way match, two girls who are compatible dating and even being intimate with each other without a current male partner won't get more than a second glance, at least within a ninja village. Gay men get some small breaks from this from people who recognise the hypocrisy of holding them to a different standard, but it's offset almost as much by resentment at taking themselves out of circulation unless they're open enough for occasional female playmates even if none stay in a lasting way. The way both Haruno twins seem to be interested in Ino but not visibly competing over it absolutely rots the socks of their admirers, though the common knowledge of their being psychic and the degree to which they act in unison preempts most of the nastiest rumors.

None of this has any immediate relevance to the main cast, however, as they're all still just kids, with crushes (acknowledged or denied) the most any of them are up to - even if Ino is not as rabid in her pursuit of the class hottie Sasuke because she's flattered by the attention of Sakura's also smokin' brothers that relationship is still only at the 'friends with possibilities' stage. As to age of consent, if their society considers them old enough to take a life, they're old enough to create one, and there are any number of methods for ninja to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

Amaboshi - sun-dried persimmon - a namelike word picked at random, in this case.

For those of you who've read Nathan's story, Teenage Genin Ninja Heroes, Sakura is not doing the technique he has her training in there - or at least, not quite. Certainly not when she uses a soldier pill, and has a surge of chakra that has to be tamed... but other times, when she's trying to do the most with the least and has the extra attention that would be taken up controlling that extra, more unstable chakra, she has noticed that altering the way it flows within her muscles gives a bigger return than forming the same amount of chakra around her body like the Academy technique. And, with the Haruno bloodline developed for combat uses unlike the TGNH Haruno, she has a seperate mind to go into a meditative state and do that finicky control... so in a way, she kind of is using the technique, without even realising that it's not the same thing at all.

"Ten-yen" - a ryo, which seems to be the standard unit of currency in the Naruto world, was the name of a ten-yen coin, though such are now generally just referred to as "ten yen coins." As such, Sakura pretty much accused Tenten of being a very cheap slut, having been itching to get a rematch of their earlier fight now that she has some skills to apply. Tenten is sensitive about this issue to begin with as a teenage girl living alone, without even the thin shield of a family name to ward off scumbags who think there's much more entertaining ways she could make a living than as a ninja. This is made even worse by the fact that there's a spelling of "tenten" which means "moving from place to place; being passed around repeatedly."

hajiku - (1) to flip; to snap; (2) to repel - It seemed just right for an ugly berserker, ne? His clan is distantly related to the Leaf's Akamichi, as you may have guessed, but they have taken their development in different directions.

ishikiri - stone-cutting; quarrying; stone-cutter

Shinju Zanshu - Double Suicide Decapitation, supposedly. Different sources list the translation as "Inner Earth" or "Groundhog" instead of "Double Suicide," which make rather more sense.

Doton: Funpi Sekihi - Earth release: stone knife (Jomon-period tool, shaped like a rice spoon) + springing up; flying away

kachinkachin - (1) rock hard; stiff and unyielding (personality); (2) clangor - Kasui is making fun of Kin for repeatedly turning him down, the actual wording of the expression used at the end of the paragraph would be "ishinouenimosannen" - literally, "Even the coldest rock will get warm if sat on for three years," hence her reply about the placement of retaliatory needles.

kasui - (n) spike - no, his family name is not Wittowikki, nor does he posess a title like "the Bloody."

gansou - (n) rock formation

saiseki enshuujou - broken stone; rubble + maneuvering ground - a D-to-A-rank ninjutsu used to cover a battlefield in loose stone, either to reduce the ability of non-Stone-nin to move easily or to set up for other ninjutsu. The rank varies mainly based on how large an area is to be affected, the chakra manipulation itself is quite easy but becomes draining over a larger area.

kataiishi sankaku - hard stone + (1) (obsc) armor, helmet & shield (armour); (2) kakurei, kakuun & kakumei (first, fifth and fifty-eighth years of the sexagenary cycle; times of civil unrest according to onmyou-dou)

tenseki juudan - rolling stone + flying through/cutting across/longitudinal slice. Yes, the basic look is stolen from the rock dude in Ninja Scroll, if with a different weapon, but in continuity it's derived from the same roots as the Nikudan Sensha used by the modern Akamichi clan.

Again, there's a conglomerate japanese word for the expression Kakashi uses as a quip after this technique : "tensekikokemusazu" - a rolling stone gathers no moss

henge - transformation - opinions are generally divided on whether this technique is a real transformation or just an illusion, but I fall into the "real" camp for three reasons: a) Naruto transforms into a fuuma shuriken and then matches the flight characteristics of a real fuuma shuriken for Sasuke's Shadow Shuriken attack on Zabusa, which would require actually having the apparent mass and aerodynamic properties of the object he turned into. b) Sasuke wasn't surprised at this happening, so it's not just Naruto doing some funky real transformation when everyone else just uses an illusion. c) Gamabunta tells Naruto to do a combination henge to turn them into something with claws and fangs for fighting Shuukaku, which would be pointless if said claws and fangs were just illusions. Again, there'd be no reason for him to know about it if Naruto's henge was different from anyone else's in being a real, physical change. Henge no jutsu is therefore classed as ninjutsu in this version of the setting.

Omake: The same type as Kakashi?

Thinking hard about shuriken (his hand brushed the navel in a firm stomach, that abruptly turned hard as steel), the different types of shuriken (damn that was a big one, and so well made), care and maintenaince of shuriken (a glimpse of chest through a tattered pink shirt), and the best ways of throwing shuriken (it slipped easily around his fingers, all he had to do was twirl and...), Sasuke sped up just a bit more.

Screw target practise, he had a hot scene bookmarked and a full box of kleenex waiting.

END OF LINE


	13. Team 8: Get Up from the Falls 1 of 2

**I'm really not that happy with this part, splitting the chapter in half for FFn posting means the only really good scene is the first one, the rest is pretty much all rehash to frame the part where Hinata comes back in, in the second part. Her progression is an important part of the plans for the story, but actually showing it takes a lot of words.**

txy08a_t8_falls

2007-12-13 - initial file created, notes transferred from DWMB saves  
>2007-12-14 - watched Jump Festa 2004, took notes of how to sub ShinoHinata/Kiba and found that it actually seems more in character with them than Sasuke/Sakura/Naruto once I bring in the kunoichi team member at the end instead of just having her watch while the guys double-team Stupid.  
>2007-12-25 - Hinata flashbacktraining scenified  
>2008-05-09 - part of the flashback moved to an earlier chapter when it happens live<br>2008-05-14 - integrated remaining flashback bit, battle finale  
>2008-05-23 - minor fixes, found the anime again to watch, again<br>2008-05-25 - Nagisa and Hiashi scenes  
>2008-06-09 - Zabuza scene, Ichiraku meeting, canon beginning to Shibuki's duel. I've written 30kb tonight and haven't gotten through the first two sentences of outline...<br>2008-06-10 - found gimmick to be less dully canon, knocked out the rest. Proofread.  
>2008-06-21 - corrected Nagisa's age, caught a few more gremlins<br>2010-03-12 - fixed a gaping continuity hole and a few minor rephrasings  
>2011-11-10 - chopped in half for FFn<p>

Continuity Note: This too takes place mostly concurrent with the Wave Country mission. It'll be the last chapter before heading into the Chuunin Exam at last; Ino already got her moment and the guys are in better condition to begin with. Kiba and Shino's parts in this are pretty close to Naruto and Sasuke canon as well, but I couldn't cut any more and have the story make sense. Just be glad I dispensed with the poo 'jokes.'

Hinata still tended to walk huddled into her jacket and with her head half-bowed, but lately there was a certain something to her step that had been missing for too long. She'd risen and left early for the training grounds to get in some kata before meeting her team, and there was also another possibility never to be overlooked. Nearing the Ichiraku ramen stand to buy some breakfast, she could hear that her luck seemed good this morning.

"Oi, oi, old man Teuchi! Seconds please!" A cheerful voice rang out in the early morning stillness as she approached the spill of light from the small, booth-style shop. "Mmm, it smells delicious, dattebayo!"

Ducking under the curtain-like banner across the front, she greeted, "Good morning, Ichiraku-san, N-N-Naruto-kun." Upright again, she noticed the second customer siting beside the blond boy and her good mood vanished. "... Rikou-san," she continued, after an awkward pause.

"Hyuuga-san," the older kunoichi ground out. "I see you're not stuttering so much. It's important for a ninja to show confidence, isn't it?"

"Y-yes..." the shy girl acknowledged, restrained from fleeing only by the utmost act of will. "As... as important as d-dressing w-well to im-impress clients..." her voice was barely audible, but Rikou still flinched at the hit, well aware of how some people saw her practical and stylish tight pink body suit. It was just... -uniquely- stylish, rather than bowing to sheeplike trends, she assured herself.

Another awkward silence followed, if unnoticed by the happily slurping fox boy. Gathering her courage once more, the Hyuuga heiress placed her order. "I-I'd like a Morning Nin Special p-please, Ichiraku-san."

"An excellent choice, Hyuuga-sama," the chef replied happily, trying to lighten the atmosphere again. "Packed with everything to start your day right, my Morning Nin Special will get you going for whatever challenge it brings!"

Leaving off her glare at the younger girl, Rikou pointedly went back to eating her own bowl of noodles, chowing down with gusto before commenting, "Hey Naruto, isn't it lucky you have a team mate who loves ramen just as much as you do?"

After calling for another bowl, the boy agreed, "Yeah, yeah! Lee and Gai-sensei don't know what they're missing, dattebayo. Even Hinata loves it too, I see her here a lot in the mornings!"

Splitting her chopsticks perfectly, the lavender-eyed girl nodded agreeably and bowed her head as her meal arrived. "Ittedakimasu," she said quietly before giving the bowl a quick swirl, pulling out a bunch of noodles and toppings. She blew on them delicately, then popped them in her mouth and used the chopsticks to pull the rest of the long noodles out of the broth without a wasted drop or unladylike sound.

"Such a cool response!" Rikou lamented. "That attitude is elegant and dignified, and it kind of pisses me off..."

"Eh? Did you say something, Rikou?" her clueless team mate asked, looking up from his (empty, again) bowl. Not enlightened in the least by the wordless howl of frustration in reply, he turned back to Teuchi. "More please! I think... Beef this time! Dattebayo!"

Legend of Explosive Youth part Eight

Team Eight: Get Up From the Falls

Mostly by ClassicDrogn except the better part at the end, which is by Greiver, with his cameo insert and crossover team who've grown to have more important roles than mere cameos.

That meeting at Ichiraku Ramen had been nearly two weeks before, and Naruto's team had left on a mission later the same day that was still going on. Hinata walked quietly through the woods with her team and their client north of Fire Country, planning her diary entry for the evening since she'd missed a few during the trip.

*Team Eight is nearing the end of our first C-rank mission, bodyguarding the young leader of Hidden Waterfall as he returns after making arrangements to enter a team in the upcoming Chuunin Selection Exam, to be held in Konoha. He is Takino Shibuki-san, a bit younger than Kurenai-sensei, with dark hair and eyes. His father was a great man who was very respected by everyone in Hidden Waterfall...*

A bird took off from the trees overhead, squawking protest at the humans invading its territory, and the teenaged client yelped and hid behind her back. Hinata blushed at the idea that someone would think to ask her personally to protect them, Kiba rolled his eyes and even Shino and their sensei Yuuhi Kurenai sweatdropped at the scene. Trying to live up to the expectation, Hinata pushed chakra into her eyes to activate the Hyuuga dojutsu, and scanned the surrounding area with the Byakugan's penetrating perception. "A-ano, Shibuki-san... it was r-really just a bird..."

Still crouching behind her, the older boy gulped and looked around nervously but insisted, "I-I knew that!" He craned his head, scanning for anything out of place, before he finally climbed back to his feet and Hinata returned to planning her entry as the group moved on.

*... however, it seems that Shibuki-san also has difficulty with fulfilling the expectations of others. I am the heir of an important position as well, so I'll keep doing my best for Shibuki-san, and as always for Naruto-kun. I'm a little extra nervous about this mission myself, since Waterfall Country also borders on Lightning Country, whose Hidden Cloud village has made more than one attempt to obtain the Byakugan in the past...*

It wasn't long before the rumbling rush of a large waterfall made itself heard through the trees, and soon they passed into the clear area around its basin. "Damn, that's some big falls!" Kiba marveled with a whistle. It was easily as tall as the wall around Konoha and at least fifty feet wide without even counting the secondary streams. His small white nin-dog Akamaru yipped agreement from his place riding on the Inuzuka boy's head.

"So, this is Takigakure," Aburame Shino said calmly, as ever. The morning sunlight caught and gleamed on the frames of his little round sunglasses, but between them and the high collar of his coat any expression his voice would not betray was still hidden.

The group walked around toward the foot of the falls, taking in the scenery until a pair of children ran up shouting welcome to the returning leader, who stood with a suddenly confident seeming poise as he turned to return the greeting. "Hey, I'm totally leader of the village," he told them kindly. "I don't have time to play with you now."

"Eh? No, we're like, cleaning up around here," the little girl told him. "Mom told us to," her brother quickly added.

"Oh? For sure," Shibuki replied. He smiled warmly and volunteered, "How about some help then, from these awesome Hidden Leaf ninja?" Ignoring Kiba's indignant protests, he told Kurenai, "Don't worry, I'll pay - Like, consider it another mission."

The beautiful, wild-haired jounin smiled tolerantly as the two kids glomped onto Kiba and showered him with thanks, as the one who'd stood forward from the rest of the team. "You totally saved us!" The little boy told him. "The water moves way fast here, so we were shook!"

"We'll take it, Shibuki-san," she told the teenaged leader, "We'll expect a seperate payment later, of course." Kurenai's namesake deep red eyes sparkled with amusement at the Inuzuka's resigned look - of all the D-rank missions, garbage collection was always the one he hated the most, with his sensitive sense of smell.

"So, we are done protecting you?" the Aburame boy asked.

Still wearing his confident smile, Shibuki replied, "Sure dudes, this is far enough."

"Might as well get started on your new mission, then," Kurenai told the genin. Kiba grumbled, but Shino and Hinata simply headed for the water's edge without protest.

As her students moved off, the woman asked quietly, "What's up with the rumors of ninja movements in this area?"

"Like, rumors?" the Taki-nin asked serenely, trying to play it off.

Not buying it, she pressed, "It's said that shinobi from other countries are after Takigakure village."

Composure slipping a bit, the dark-eyed teen relied, "Oh... there's always bogus rumors like that..."

*That's right,* the Leaf jounin remembered, *his father was killed, defending Hidden Waterfall from outsiders...* Further discussion was preempted as a hawk swooped out of the sky with a screech, again prompting Shibuki to cower and shield his head. "Not to worry," she told the jumpy young man, "This is a messenger bird from the Leaf." She held out an arm for it to land, reinforcing it with chakra to its talons wouldn't break the skin.

The message was short and unencoded, and she wondered why they'd bothered to send it to her in the field at all when her team would be back in the village in just another day or two. Still, she was summoned, and there was no reason to fear for her students following later. "It's that time again already?" she muttered to herself. With Shibuki's visit to the leaf it was obviously near, but... "Hey everyone," she called to the genin. "I need to return to Konoha for an important jounin meeting. Finish up here, then come back, okay?"

Distaste for the mission forgotten with the rush of being trusted on their own, not just outside the village but in a foreign country, Kiba shouted back, "Yeah! Just leave everything to us, the best team in the Leaf!" Dropping her load of cans in a trash bag, Hinata twiddled her wet fingers but didn't gainsay her energetic team mate, and, well, Shino was still stoic.

It didn't take too long before the shores of the waterfall basin were cleared of debris, and Kiba unzipped his fur-trimmed hoodie so it could hang open as he flopped down, unused to the northern heat. "Man, I'm beat," he complained. His stomach growled, answered by his animal partner's, and the dog-user suggested, "Hey, even though it's early, how about we check out Hidden Waterfall's food? I could go for some lunch about now."

Spinning away from the younger kids, who'd cajoled him into playing after all, Shibuki quashed that idea immediately. "No way!" he ordered. "If the job's done, like, scram!"

Kiba sputtered and Hinata flinched, but Shino just nodded respectfully and turned to leave. "Very well, we'll go," he agreed.

"WAIT A MINUTE! What do you mean, saying 'we'll go' just like that!" the Inuzuka blustered. "Like we're gonna put up with this rude bastard-"

"Kiba," the taller boy interrupted, "he doesn't want us to know where the entrance to Hidden Waterfall is. Look behind you, it's obviously nearby."

"Um, but... aren't Konoha and T-Taki allies...?" Hinata asked, looking between Shino and and the Waterfall leader.

"How do I know that won't, like, change?" the older boy demanded harshly. Kiba of course protested that the Leaf would never betray an ally, but the kunoichi could see his side of it, too. *I suppose that's the sort of thing you have to think about, when other people rely on you,* she thought, with a poorly concealed shudder for her own future.

Kiba had given up his rant and was stomping away in a huff, though the effect was ruined by unfolding his arms to wave at the two youngsters' cheery farewells.

The Leaf-nins' leave taking was interrupted by the little boy's frightened call as his mother appeared, staggering and beaten as she stepped out of the trees. "Shibuki-sama..." she gasped. "Most heinous... Enemies..." Losing her fragile balance the woman collapsed, revealing a kunai still stuck in her back and blood soaking the fabric of her dark kimono.

Everyone rushed to her side, the Hyuuga girl putting her interest in medicine to use and checking over the wound. "The injury isn't s-serious," she pronounced after a few seconds, "She's just p-passed out from shock."

"Then, we should totally get her back to the village!" the children urged.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Shino disagreed.

"She did say there was an enemy attack, after all," Kiba added.

"But... but how did they get into that way hidden village?" Shibuki gasped fearfully.

After a moment's planning, Shino turned his bespectaclled gaze back to the shy kunoichi. "Hinata, you should hide with this woman and the children to protect them, and tend to her injury," he suggested, recieving a nod in reply.

"And like, then what!" Shibuki demanded.

Pushing his little sunglasses up on his nose, the Aburame replied, "Show us the entrance to Hidden Waterfall, and we will continue our bodyguard mission while dealing with the invasion."

"Deal with...? Don't be defective!" An edge of panic had crept into the young leader's voice, again something Hinata could identify with all too well. "What do you dudes think you can do?"

Before anyone could answer, Akamaru barked a warning, his human partner springing from his crouch to knock the other two boys away from the anticipated attack. Ignoring the Taki-nin's protest he got back down, poised on his hands and the balls of his feet, after a quick seal and a call of "Ninpo: Shikyaku no jutsu!" His fingernails lengthened into claws and prominent fangs peeked out from the transformed boy's upper lip.

A quartet of adult ninja burst out from the foot of the waterfall then, throwing a barrage of kunai just in time to be met by the Inuzuka's next technique.

With a shout of "TSUUGA!" he leapt into the air, spinning at high speed as he hurled towards the attackers. Their thrown weapons clattered away and were deflected by the movement, and the horizontal tornado he'd become arced to brush three of them, rapidly spinning claws shredding their uniforms and gouging deep cuts in the enemy ninja as he passed.

The fourth escaped with an incredible acrobatic maneuver, landing on a rock near the foot of the falls and cursing before leaping back through the curtain of water. "Che," Kiba complained, landing himself on another rock nearby. "He got away..." The other three swam painfully for the far side of the lake, trails of red swirling behind them. They'd probably make it, but the blood loss before they did would surely put them out of this battle.

"SHIBUKI-SAMA!" the little boy shouted, running over to where his village leader was curled up in a terrified ball. "Shibuki-sama! What's the damage? Are you hurt!"

Realizing his position, the teenager quickly pulled himself into a sitting posture and pasted on a less frightened face. "No, it's, like, it's nothing. I'm totally shaking in excitement," he told the boy.

"Since we've come this far, we'll see it through to the end," Shino told him, still maddeningly calm.

"That's right, it's a mission," the dog-user said, catching Akamaru as the pup leapt from the grassy bank into his arms. "So let's get started!"

"Hidden Waterfall has survived because of awesome natural barriers, and its hidden entrance," Shibuki told the two boys seriously. "Like, total 'invitation only,' got it?" They'd worked their way up perhaps a quarter of the height of the falls along the face of the cliff they ran down, and were proceeding along a ledge that led behind the curtain of water. "You won't be able to tell anyone about this entrance," he continued.

"Obviously!" Kiba butted in. "We know that, so let's get going already."

"That's like, not what I mean," the teenager replied. "By the time you come back, the path will be changed."

The three of them snuck from one rock formation to the next as they entered the tunnel behind the falls until reaching a room with numerous small pools, glowing gently green with bioluminescent algae. They crouched behind a final boulder for a few seconds until Shino reported, "There is no one here." The insects he'd deployed as scouts came crawling quickly back to vanish under his coat, since swimming was the obvious next stage and the hive would need to be sealed against the water.

With the all clear the older boy rose from his crouch and walked out into the larger cavern, picking one of the pools and ordering, "Well come on, dudes," before taking a deep breath and diving in.

Among the roots of a large tree where she'd taken the children and her mother, Hinata packed up her medical supplies. "She sh-should be fine now," she assured the two frightened youngsters, clinging to their unconscious mother's hand. She'd laid the woman out on her side to avoid putting unneccesary pressure on the wound after dressing it and closing her clothes back up, and placed her own rolled blanket under her head as a pillow, since many people were discomfited by Shino's bugs and Kiba's smelled strongly of dog. It was scattered with itchy shed hair, too.

The little girl cried despite all Hinata said or did, however, and the Leaf kunoichi could only hope no enemies were actually nearby to hear since she'd been too busy concentrating on patching up her patient to scan the area with her special vision.

It seemed that hope was in vain; even as the boy fiercely asserted, "Shibuki-sama will, like, do something about it!" another enemy ninja appeared in a rush of displaced air. His face was masked, and spiky brown hair peeked out from under a slashed Hidden Rain hitae-ate worn bandanna style.

"Oh?" he gloated. "And what would that be?" Before the Hyuuga heiress could do more than gasp in shock, he hit a nerve cluster at the base of her neck to immediately knock her out.

Surfacing at last from the submerged tunnel, the two Leaf genin climbed out onto the bank of the hidden lake. A truly enormous tree filled an island at its center while red-roofed, pagoda style houses nestled on the outer shore where they stood. Kiba was full of enthusiastic praise for the place's picturesque beauty.

More concerned about the lack of citizens or invaders appearing, Shino looked over the surroundings warily, waiting for his insect allies to unseal the openings to the hive so they could spread out and gather information for him. A sudden flare of killing intent twinged his senses and he knocked the dog user back into the water where Shibuki had stayed.

"Shino!" the Inuzuka protested. "What the hell?"

"I'll distract them," was the quick explanation, "Protect the client." Then he was leaping away from another squad of enemies, who moved like ninja though their skills were so poor a single spread of shuriken was enough to put the lot of them down.

That small victory was counteracted by a pair of solidified water whips that wrapped around him from either side, the elegantly dressed kunoichi directing the one on his left commenting, "Oh? It seems you're a strong one."

From the other side, the leader of the squad who'd attacked outside the falls taunted, "You won't get me by surprise like your partner did this time... What do you say, shall we tear him apart?" he asked the woman. The two of them pulled their watery bindings tighter, squeezing the bug-user painfully in their confines.

"No," a third voice interrupted from behind. "We'll, like, use him as a hostage." Before the boy had time to consider that further he was hit by a lightning attack, stunning his nearly-free insect colony and knocking him out.

The Aburame awoke to find himself without his jacket, arms tied together behind his back and dangling from the tori in front of a small shrine. Clusters of people in civilian clothes were scattered around nearby, also bound and tied back to back in groups of four or five. He tugged experimentally at his bindings, but the poofy-haired male ninja who'd helped catch him warned, "I wouldn't try that if I were you... that's my specially made wire, if you struggle too much you'll wear through the coating and it'll cut your arms right off."

Not too worried about being immobilized in the first place, Shino relaxed and let himself hang peacefully. He could feel his allies stirring inside, overcoming the shock, and acting himself was unneccesary for the vast majority of his family's insect techniques. Behind his back but for once not hidden within a jacket, the webbing that had sealed the hive entrances on the backs of his wrists was eaten away by the weaver-bugs who'd deposited it, and soon destruction bugs would swarm out ready to do his bidding.

Off to one side, the masked shinobi and his squad appeared from above, Hinata and the civilians who'd been left in her care being reeled down from the tree with them in a large cargo net - undoubtedly the way goods too massive to be swum through the entrance they'd been shown were brought in. The pale-eyed girl held both children against her sides, trying to comfort them despite her own fears and depressing earlier failure to keep them safe.

Looking down on the scene from a knothole above, Shibuki recognised the leader of the invaders, sitting on the steps of the shrine. *So that's how they got in,* he thought fearfully. *Suien, you showed them the entrance?*

On the ground below, one of the bound Takigakure citizens was asking the same question he dearly wanted to know the answer to. "Suien!" the bearded young man demanded, "You were like, the best ninja in Hidden Waterfall. Why are you doing this? Are you trying to take over the village!"

"Hah!" the trenchcoat-clad traitor scoffed. "I have no use for this bogus village. All I want is that crazy Hero Water."

"You numbnuts," the young man declared. "Shibuki-sama would totally not hand it over to you!"

"He's already destroyed it!" insisted another, with a bandanna and dark blue stripes painted around his eyes.

"If he was a real leader, he totally would," Suien acknowledged, "But... I was the one who taught him as a ninja. I, like, know everything about him. OI! SHIBUKI!" he shouted. "I know you're like, hiding out, dude. Bring that Hero Water here and no one else will have to get hurt."

"So, is that the Hero Water he's yapping about?" Kiba asked, pointing at the glass jug Shibuki was clutching.

"KYAAH!" the trembling teenager exclaimed, flipping away from his vantage point to huddle against a wall. "Like, how'd you get in here!"

"How do you think, dumbass? We followed your scent," the dog user scoffed, Akamaru backing him up with an affirmative bark. "More importantly, what's so special about this 'Hero Water' anyway?"

Holding the jug in front of himself in both hands, the Takigakure leader explained, "It's a way holy water extracted from the great tree. To fill this bottle, it takes like, a hundred years. Just one sip and your chakra is gets totally pumped, like tenfold for a short time."

"No way... ten times?" Kiba protested. "Even using a soldier pill for my family techniques just doubles my chakra."

"With, like, no one on the kage level, Takigakure's heroes drink this water to fight in times of war. With its mondo power, the Hidden Waterfall has been protected in the past. But... it's a gnarly blade. It way boosts your chakra, but it puts a heinous strain on the body. Many of our village shinobi, like, died after the battle was won, from that water. That's why it's kept sealed away, and it's totally the leader's job to safeguard it. A few years ago, these skeggy foreign dudes attacked... my father drank it, to protect the village. But he like, wasn't young enough to survive the effects of the water."

Shibuki had pulled out a photograph while he spoke, of his father with his younger self perched happily on one knee. "My father was a total fool," he told the Leaf-nin angrily. "Everyone said he was like, a hero, so he drank the water and died!" Fear overcoming the momentary burst of anger, he continued, "As the leader, it's my duty to protect this sacred water. If those dweebs get it, the village will like, be destroyed immediately!"

"SHIBUKI!" Suien was still calling him out by the shrine. "I know you won't bag that water... If there's a war in the future, you'll totally be too weak to defend the village without it! But if you think you can, like, keep hiding, you're wrong dude. Unless you man up, we'll kill everyone here one at a time until you appear!"

Some of the bound citizens tried to protest, not to plead for their own lives but yelling to their leader not to hand over the Waterfall's treasure, but the three Rain-nin lashed them into wordless screams with their water whips.

"So what the hell are you still doing here?" Kiba demanded. "Those kids, the people of Takigakure, they all believe you're really strong, that you're going to save them!"

"They, like, just think that the village leader is a hero," the older boy replied, on the verge of tears. "I just took over the shadow of my dad!"

Tired of waiting, Suien grabbed the little girl, now free of the cargo net but bound seperately. He held a kunai to her throat and taunted, "I'll give you one more minute dude, then we'll start with this kid!"

".. I don't know all the details, but it seems like your father was a pretty great man to me," Kiba asserted, still looking down from above. "Giving your life to defend his village... not many can do that." As the traitor counted down the time before making good on his threat, the Inuzuka lifted his dog off his head and fished around in his equipment pouch.

"What are you going to to do?" the terror-striken Waterfall leader asked tremulously.

"Only the ones who could do that, are worthy of the name 'Hero,'" the Leaf-nin said in lieu of an answer. "Of course, that's also what it means to be a ninja, isn't it? To risk your life for the good of your village?" He tossed the soldier pill he'd retrieved to his pup, who crunched down on the medicine immediately. The small dog's hair began to bristle and turn red as his partner made some quick seals and called out, "Juujin bunshin! Come on, Akamaru!" Where a boy and his dog had stood two animalistic teens leapt out through the man-sized knothole.

"... Three... two... one! Like, time's up, Shibuki!" Suien hollered. His arm drew back for the stab, but before he could do more than that a rough voice rang out across the scene.

"Hold it, you jackass!" one of the Kiba posed dramatically on the great tree's lowest branch growled. "Don't you touch that kid!"

"What the... another bum appeared?" the traitor complained.

"It's that brat who took out my men," the missing-nin squad leader pointed out angrily.

"Whatever... I just want the Hero Water, not some wannabe hero," Suien grumbled. He resumed his interrupted motion, the little girl clutched in his free hand screaming and clenching her eyes shut in terror as the knife came down. Just before it could hit, a Kiba snatched her away from the traitor, his clone knocking the arm with the kunai away harmlessly. The first bounded away with his precious cargo into the tree again, but the second was too tangled up with the former Taki-nin to escape. Grabbing a second kunai with his other hand Suien jabbed it into the feral Leaf-nin, producing a pained howl and forcing the transformation to drop.

Falling at the traitor's feet with a yelp, Akamaru thrashed weakly and curled around the wound in his haunch.

"Like, this is the best hero you can produce!" Suien scoffed, laughing cruelly. "A puppy?" He drew back his leg to kick the injured animal, but before he could the real Kiba had leapt back down, intercepting the blow and shoving his partner into the temporary safety of the center of a group of bound civilians.

"One dog or another, it's totally the same to me!" the trechcoat-clad man yelled, delivering a second, full power boot to the boy's ribs that threw him over beside the masked Rain-nin.

"What a pathetic hero," that one commented, delivering a few hefty stomps to Kiba's chest. "Spelled h-e-r-o but pronounced 'idiot!'"

"YOU SEE!" Suien thundered. "There are no heroes in Takigakure! There, like, haven't been any since your father died, Shibuki!"

Cowering in his hidden bolthole, Shibuki couldn't believe the Leaf genin would go so far for a bunch of strangers, and could only tremble as the people - his people - insisted he was a great hero, who was still going to come and save the day.

"Shibuki, like, isn't that kind of guy," the traitor chuckled. "He's totally a weak coward, who always runs away."

"No way!" the little boy insisted, wiggling around in the ropes that bound him beside Hinata. "Shibuki-sama is our hero, and he's gonna give you a shellacking!"

Still chuckling, Suien walked over and pulled the child to his feet. "Then die, like, hating that hero," he said cruelly, bringing his kunai to the boy's throat as he had with his sister, "because it looks like your lives mean squat to Shibuki, after all."

Suddenly, a blue-white riptide curl of power touched down a few paces away, even as the three Rain missing-nin and their remaining goon squad simply keeled over unconscious. "Wha... what? Impossible..." the kunoichi muttered, still clinging to awareness. She lasted just long enough to see a few kikai bugs march across her shoulder and away toward the still helpless villagers before succumbing to the chakra depletion caused by having them feed on her energy. Still dangling from the arch over the shrine, Shino smirked fractionally, face visible for once without his high-collared jacket.

The cyclone dissipated to reveal Shibuki, surrounded by a burning aura of blue chakra.

"Long time no see, dude," the traitor sneered. "You haven't changed. Looks like you swigged that Hero Water... Where's the rest? You like, kept some, right?"

Firmly in his role as Brave Leader of Takigakure the teenager replied evenly, "There's no point in asking, since I'm totally going to school you."

"Dude, are you serious?" Suien scoffed. "You know like, better than anyone what happens if someone with your loserosity drinks it. Even with the Hero Water your chakra can't surpass mine, I have way more than your potential."

"Then I'll do my best," Shibuki stated, confident mask slipping slightly but still determined. "Takigakure ryu: Mizuki no Yaiba!" A streamer of water rose out of the lake at his back, then took the form of a curved blade as his right hand closed around it. Suien mirored the ninjutsu in time to parry the teenager's charge, the collisions of their water swords as they crossed blades again and again halfway between the thunk of wood and the musical clink of ice.

Unimpressed, Suien gloated, "Hmph, all that chakra doesn't help your lame form. I totally see through your movements, so like, I win!" An unexpected slash, and the tip of his blade smacked his one-time student's hand, dissipating the ninjutsu with a splash as the water collapsed. The traitor roared victoriously and ran his own blade through the younger man's lower chest, piercing the bottom lobe of his left lung and right out his back before letting his own technique end.

"Damn it, get up..." the fallen teen pleaded with his body. "I got to... everyone... the kids... protect them..."

"Heh, you will always be like that ... Totally, you'll always be a weak coward," the traitor scoffed. He reached into the chakra pocket he'd sensed in the front of Shibuki's shirt, the reason he hadn't gone for a heart strike. "Yeah, just as I thought. I FINALLY GOT THE HERO WATER! NOW I'LL BE TOTALLY KICK-ASS!"

Coughing up blood from his punctured lung, Shibuki gasped weakly, "Dude... give it back..."

Ignoring his pleas, the traitor put a foot on the younger man's chest to keep him from making trouble while he worked the cork out of the jug and drank. A huge flare of chakra sprang up around him like a bonfire, and a sickly crunch came from the boy trapped under his heel. "Dude! I broke your ribs just by stepping on you?" He laughed manaically. "Don't worry, be happy, Shibuki! You like, get to be the first prey of the new and improved, invincible me!" Unfortunately he wasn't too wrapped up in his gloating to dodge a kunai flying in from behind, and the traitor spun to see Kiba forcing his way to his feet despite the battering he'd taken.

"Unforgiveable!" the bruised Leaf-nin declared. He got another soldier pill out of his pouch, this time taking it himself. "There's no way I'll let you do as you like... I'm gonna kick your ass!"

"Dude..." Shibuki wore a smile despite the pain, hearing the young ninja's confidence. At the base of the great tree, Hinata had a similar expression until she closed her eyes to concentrate chakra to her hands and the wires still binding her.

"Shikyaku no jutsu!" the feral boy called, charging at the Taki-nin traitor. "Tsuuga!" Again he burst into motion too fast to properly see, a whirlwind with claws and fangs that hurtled to attack with breakneck speed.

All for nothing, it seemed. Suien brought his arms forward in a chakra-reinforced cross guard, the furious attack doing no more than to drive him a single step backward before the spin ended, leaving an incredulous Kiba straining his hands against the jounin's wrists. "No way!" He gasped. "He blocked the Piercing Fang!"

"Way," Suien replied, with a vicious sneer. "Like, nice try, kid. Are you ready to die now?" He swatted Kiba away effortlessly. The dog-user flew in a straight line up and away for around seventy feet until he smashed into the tree, knocking a huge cloud of dust loose and getting stuck in a divot in the bark. Before he could do more than pry himself loose, the traitor had appeared beside him in a flare of power, smacking him down again with a shout to splash into the lake in a huge fountain of spray.

"K-Kiba-kun!" his kunoichi team mate gasped, echoed by the villagers and a frightened whine from Akamaru.

"Don't give up," Shino advised. "Until you give up, it isn't over!" As if to prove his words, a bolt of hard-edged water cut the thickly coated wire holding him up, letting the bug-user drop to his feet and, with the release of tension, free his arms. He quickly picked up and replaced his jacket from the shrine steps while rethinking the changed situation, uncomfortable without its concealing folds.

Holding himself up with one of the tori side posts, Shibuki spat out another mouthful of blood and told him, "Everyone will be like, killed... take the kids and run, dude..."

"Run?" the Aburame scion asked, light washing across his sunglasses as he looked at the older teen. "That will not be neccesary. I will fight him."

Still hanging at the side of the tree, Suien laughed again. "I so have awesome power..." he gloated. The splash had settled below him, but where he'd expected a floating Leaf, unconscious or dead from the hit, no one was visible. "Is that brat still alive?"

"Over here, Suien!" the normally quiet Aburame shouted, drawing the man's attention. He leapt and threw a handful of shuriken, which the powered up traitor easily dodged. Doing damage had not been Shino's intent, however, merely to distract his attention from the boy's team mate, readying an attack from above.

"TSUUGA!" The battle cry came too late for Suien to react, before a whirling piledriver came down on his head and knocked him in turn to splash down in the lake below.

"Probably, he is still fine," Shino warned as the two boys came to rest on a wide branch.

Sure enough, the traitor blasted right back up out of the water, a roundhouse punch sending Kiba flying all the way across the lake to crash into the roof of one of the village buildings. "I'll totally kill you both!" he raged.

"You may try," the remaining Leaf-nin stated, "but you will fail." A massive swarm of destruction bugs began to billow out of his coat sleeves as he spoke, hurtling toward the enemy when he snapped his hands forward.

Suien dropped down to the surface of the lake and kicked up a wave to shield himself from the creepy attack, but didn't anticipate a spread of kunai hidden inside the mass of bugs. They easily broke through the thin barrier but were scattered harmlessly by the flaring chakra produced by the Hero Water. "That was like, pitiful," the nuke-nin scoffed. "Don't get a big head!"

Dropping smoothly to land a few feet away on the surface of the lake, the Aburame pushed up his sunglasses and argued coldly, "You are the overconfident one... Anyone can gain strength from drinking the Hero Water, but that strength is a lie. How do I know this? Just look at yourself, you're already becoming strained."

Panting but unwilling to admit the point, the traitor growled, "Dude... Shut up!" He aimed a vicious sweep kick at the genin, then fell back in shock as it broke right through the boy's chest with next to no resistance... just before Shino's form exploded in a mass of kikaichu, that swarmed over Suien and began draining his chakra.

Continued in part B


	14. Team 8: Get Up from the Falls 2 of 2

**Here we go! Now this is the meat of the episode...**

txy08b_t8_falls

continued from part A

Now freed, Hinata watched from the shore nearby as the traitorous jounin screeched and batted futilely at the nin-bugs, his flaming aura beginning to die down. Determined to crush the annoying kids who'd appeared to ruin his moment of triumph, Suien pulled out the jug of Hero Water and took a second draught, a renewed flare of energy bursting up as the swarm reached the limits of their ability to absorb chakra and dropped off.

"Neji-niisan..." she whispered to herself, "I have n-not accepted... a destiny of failure."

The training sessions with her cousin would have been tediously repetitive if they hadn't been so brutal - at first she'd only been able to attend the extra training once a week in order to recover, and only pleading with Kurenai-sensei had kept the jounin from putting a stop to them - and that didn't even begin to go into Kiba's reaction to a 'packmate' getting handled so roughly! Neji would watch with his activated Byakugan while she performed a Jyuken kata, criticising the slightest error of angle or position immediately and vicously while going through his own routine to waste the least of his training time, then when she finished he would quickly and effectively destroy her defense through the holes provided by those errors, sealing tenketsu and knocking her off her feet.

By neccessity, she'd become adept at the Hyuuga medical technique that speeded the recovery of closed tenketsu, even as her Jyuuken skill grew... And she always, always kept returning to her feet somehow until the end of the scheduled time. Her unusually large chakra reserves - doubly so for a Hyuuga, most of whom were chronically low in potential through some bizarre quirk of genetics - had a large part in such resilience, of course, and as her control and recovery abilities improved their schedule increased to every third day, then every other day, then every day... And an ever more irritable Neji moved to more advanced forms as her performance of the basics of Jyuuken edged closer to flawless.

She simply would not quit, and her refusal to accept his idea of destiny even as he proved her weakness with his strength day after day drove him to distraction, to the point that she could occasionally land a telling strike or two of her own before being demolished.

It wouldn't be accurate to say Hinata was proud of her progress - pride in herself was still an all but unthinkable dream - but some inkling of self-respect had formed, the realization that though she might bow she -would not- break, that she could get up and stand even if she was knocked down again and again and again.

After Kiba had finally been talked down, he'd been far more impressed with the girl's sheer grit, commenting, "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." The back handed compliment had still been enough to set the Hyuuga heiress blushing and stuttering, compounded further by Shino's gift of a large patch for her jacket a few days later featuring an intricate snarling wolf in front of an orange Hyuuga flame crest and the kanji for "big fight" in armor-grade kikai silk. It was roughly six inches square, oriented as a diamond and sewn in the center of her back at heart level... in large part because having it on the front would mean looking at it herself and getting embarrassed, but refusing the gift (an expensive one if Shino hadn't been an Aburame himself) would have been terribly rude.

The usually shy girl pictured that bold white wolf in her mind, imagined it was the one talking as she advanced across the water, activated her byakugan and declared, "A hero... is the one who will accept any pain for their im-important people. I w-won't let you look down on Shibuki-san... You a-are... within the field of my divination... Jyuuken: Rokujuuyonshou Hakke!"

"Two Hands!"

Concentrating with all her might, Hinata struck at the tiny points of light that marked Suien's tenketsu, targets she'd only barely begun to discern in training but which shone like a cloud of fireflies under the influence of the Hero Water.

"Four Hands!"

The raging sea of chakra that had always been her nemesis, making Hinata struggle for the merest fraction of the control that most Hyuuga were all but born with, was finally an advantage for once.

"Eight hands!"

For many Hyuuga, the incredible amounts of chakra the Hero Water forced out would have significantly decreased the effectiveness of the Gentle Fist, even in a form as advanced as the Sixty Four Divining Palms.

"Sixteen hands!"

It was actually liberating to let so much of it flow, to not have to hold back in fear of doing deadly harm to a training partner. Guided by that hard-won control, her own chakra erupted with a power that matched even that.

"Thirty two hands!"

Matched it, and overcame it, flashing painfully into Suien's already strained inner coils and forcing the primary tenketsu to close, shocking his muscles and organs with the surging backwash of foreign energy.

"Sixty four hands of Hakke!"

Suien's flaring aura had become irregular, the flame like swirl turning patchy as large sections of his inner coils no longer allowed it to flow. The unclosed lesser tenketsu remaining were physically torn wider, a faint mist of blood forming around the man as he screamed and collapsed. The water swirled angrily around his form as the escaping chakra pushed it away, and if he'd happened to fall in face first he'd surely have drowned.

Shuddering at the visible agony her hands had inflicted, Hinata wanted to back away, to undo it and apologize... But then, if Suien hadn't betrayed his village, hadn't come to take its treasures by force, she would not have needed to harm him.

If not for the effect of the water he'd stolen and drank, her special technique would have been disabling but only moderately painful; powerful as it was, it was only intended for removing the ability of an enemy to escape capture or defend against true killing blows.

If not...

"If you do not wish him to drown, it would be best to get Suien to the shore before he swallows the other half of the lake," Shino noted, standing calmly on the water beside her and watching with his usual detachment as the thrashing man gurgled and splashed more water over himself.

"Ah! You're right!" Shocked into action, the Hyuuga heiress grabbed one of the man's rag-doll arms, struggling to pull him up even as the Hero Water's effect finally tapered off and let him sink into merciful unconsciousness. Seeing her difficulty with the weight, Shino grabbed Suien's other arm to help and by the time they reached the bank Kiba had joined them as well, though his control kept wavering and dunking his feet.

Wiggling free of the cluster of tied villagers he'd hidden among, Akamaru was much amused by that last fact. He yipped brotherly insults and encouragement with equal abandon now that the battle was won.

As the Leaf-nin began to untie the groups of Takigakure citizens, the village's medic-nin made her way over to inspect Suien with a diagnostic jutsu. "He's alive, but his inner coils are like, totally destroyed," she pronounced. "He will never be able to use chakra again. If his body even recovers enough to run, he'll be mondo lucky."

Suien groaned and his eyes fluttered open. "I would have... got away with it too... if it wasn't for those... nosy kids and their dog..."

Akamaru growled and smacked the missing-nin with his tail, the small impact enough to send him spiraling back into unconsciousness. Victorious, the small white pup barked proudly. "Arf wa-wuff awoo!"

Zabuza narrowed his eyes and resisted the urge to release some killing intent at the obnoxious shopkeeper. It couldn't be said that it was unexpected for a missing-nin as infamous as himself to face suspicion and hostility, even - especially - when he'd renounced lawlessness and joined a different hidden village. The two countries might be officially at peace, but that didn't mean ninja from other villages were especially liked, and knowing he couldn't retaliate without losing the suffrage to stay meant they had no need for fear.

He should have left shopping to Haku, as usual. No one could dislike the soft spoken boy for long, and he'd get better value for the ryo as well as having the patience to put up with the vendors' attitudes gracefully, but it didn't pay for a ninja to become dependent on anyone, no matter how reliable.

He paid and slung the grocery bag in an elbow, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably without Kubikiri Houcho's comforting weight at his back... The Hokage had graciously accepted his request to stay on after returning the Raijin no Ken, but the Council here was as hidebound as the old biddies in Mist and they'd kicked up a stink until he'd offered to leave his own blade with the Sandaime as well, as a gesture of goodwill.

He felt naked without his sword. And in a way, lonesome.

Dipping one hand into the bag he retrieved a small box and stripped off the wrapper, still grouching silently about his situation... but there was another reason to do this personally, he reminded himself. "Haku is too hung up on that healthy crap," he muttered, before poking a stick of choco-banana Pocky through a gap in the bandages over his mouth. "A man can only TAKE so much rabbit food!"

Silence. It hung in the moisture heavy air like a heavy curtain, with not even the sounds of the forest interrupting. It was as if even the trees were holding their breath.

And it did little against the rising nervous tension.

The waiting was worst, to her anyway. Battle itself, even a losing one, with emotions riding the adrenal high, was preferable.

She ran through a short meditation excercise, which let at least some of the tension melt away into an alert preparedness, but the cold sweat on the back of her neck and ...

... very carefully, and taking great pains not to tense or startle, she stuck the tip of her tongue out to taste the air, noting the small cloud of fog as she breathed out ...

And _then_ she moved, leaping forward and down off the tree branch she'd been perched on, through the barely visible freeze of the modified basic Kirigakure.

The faint *thunkthunkthunk* of senbon needles piercing into wood only spurred her to move faster. She contorted her body into a spin, lashing out with one arm.

The voluminous sleeves of her tiger-striped waistcoat billowed as one discharged a length of chain, terminating in a sickle. Its short, curved blade bit deeply into a tree behind and to the side of the one she'd been perched on, yanking her off her pervious trajectory just in time to get out of the way of another flurry of senbon.

She brought her legs around, arresting what would have been a potentially painful impact against another tree, and slamming a sickle that had sprung into her -other- hand from that sleeve into the wood.

Tension. It was up again, and there was no more sound audible, other than her breath and the blood thudding its way through her temples.

Her eyes scanned the trees, not neccessarily limiting their search area to the line above her previous perch, despite the fact that this was where the angle of the senbon's flight paths indicated her assailant had struck from.

After all, it was basic tactics for snipers to move after every unsuccessful attack.

She heard no movement, though ...

Alright, so maybe her opponent was trying to play with her mind and -hadn't- moved ...

There -was- a sound, though, on the edge of her consciousness ... nagging to be noticed.

The gentle lapping of barely disturbed water.

From below, where a small pond, into which the roots of that particular tree dipped, sat.

A whistling, just as the extended chain the sickle of which was buried into the tree a ways off shuddered with impact and weight, a slender form clad in intermingled hues of dark blue and green having landed on said chain.

*Speed!* her instincts screamed at her, and she shrugged and twisted the appropriate shoulder in just the right way, causing the straps of one of her chain launchers/winches to come undone with a snap, and the device to come shooting out of her sleeve. The other released its lock on the chain as her hand let go of its sickle, leaving her to drop down as a trio of kunai shot through where her head had been not a moment ago, and slammed into the tree beside where the sickle was lodged.

She momentarily spied the blue-and-green suited kunoichi, swinging towards some possible point of rebound on her own discarded chain, and flung a spread of manriki along the expected path of the swing. Not that she expected the 11 inch long throwing chains would hit, but they'd possibly slow her opponent down just a bit.

Her eyes widened when she remembered she was heading down ... towards the _pond_ ...

... which erupted as yet another kunoichi, this one in a sleek black bodysuit, launched herself upwards from between the submerged tree-roots, propelling herself upwards along the treetrunk by virtue of her shuko adorned hands.

They met with a clash, hastily drawn manriki managing to turn aside a handclaw assisted palm strike, before the explosion notes on the three kunai stuck in the tree around the sickle above obliterated a hefty chunk of bark and wood.

Thereby letting the sickle fall away, the chain slacken, and its wielder, already unbalanced by the bodysuit clad kunoichi, plummet and hit the surface of the pond.

Which was promptly hit by a raiton from the still airborne kunoichi.

"Gotcha!" Hoshigaki Mako cried, landing lightly at the edge of the pond, grinning in a way that had her look even more like a shark than she already did thanks to her heritage.

The weighted chain that shot from the water and slammed into her stomach with enough force to make her keel over, gasping, was not expected.

A bedraggled, somewhat frazzled blonde kunoichi dragged herself from the pond, trying to get back on her feet ... then froze.

It was the faintest of touches, but she knew the feeling of the point of a senbon needle at the nape of her neck well enough by now ...

"Sorry, Mina-chan. You lose this one," Mizuno Ami, Mist genin and medic-nin in training, said.

"Mouuuuu, that was sad," a bedraggled Mina complained, drenched waistcoat draped over one shoulder, revealing the criss-crossing straps and buckles over a rust colored bodysuit that covered her from her neck to just above her knees. The usual collection of weapons she tended to carry via those straps hung from the other shoulder, and her hands were busy with trying to bring the chain launcher/winch she'd discarded during the excercise back into working order.

Beside her, her teammates walked ... or rather, one was supporting the other, who was trying not to flinch.

Mizuno Ami's mother was one of the Mist's most talented medic nin, and the blue-haired genin had picked up a thing or two by default. Especially since the other person living there sometimes came back in the sort of shape that made certain she no longer got queasy at the sight of blood.

Ami's hands were weaving chakra threads an inch or two from her team mate's bruised abdomen, helping her body with its already prodigal robustness to heal the bruising and dulling the worst of the pain in the meanwhile.

Mako briefly considered telling her to ignore it, that she'd had worse growing up and had learned to deal without any medical jutsu. There were reasons beyond practicality for which she nearly constantly wore the neck to toe wetsuit. She weighed that against having to deal with a her friend (though the concept was a relatively new one to her) in a despondent mood... then dropped the matter and let Ami do her thing.

And listened to Mina complain, though she'd been with the team long enough to know that it was little more than a token gesture on the blonde's part.

"Why is it that you complain at only having lasted twenty minutes at this excercise, and praise your teammates when they manage half that?" the voice came from the opposite side of one of the trees they'd just walked by, and, for the first time in a while, did not make them jump.

For someone who claimed to favor the direct approach whenever possible, their Jounin sensei was remarkably good at the whole sneaking-about-undetected thing.

Though maybe because they were all too tired to care. They'd been doing control drills all day, finishing up with what the person speaking had called 'evade and escape practice' but what they'd come to call 'the grind-run'. Each of them went through it once a week - having the two other kunoichi try to track and subdue her while not being allowed to use any jutsus other than the most basic ones, to simulate the chakra-exhaustion that was usually suffered during a retreat.

Mina was usually the one to last longest at this, though whether it was because her skill with the various weapons on her person and sheer luck, or just because she plain refused to 'die' was anyone's guess.

They walked the rest of the way to their usual rest area, a small glade where several of the huge trees that filled the forest had been toppled sometime in the past, in silence.

"You did well today," the Jounin called Katsu said, after they'd seated themselves on one of the fallen trees. Tallish, at an inch or two over six feet, and clad in grey fatigues and high collared jacket, hitai-ite sewn into the front of said high collar as part of the latch. What was visible of his skin - that being the face - was criss-crossed with scars. "Mina, you especially."

"Wha ...? Me? But I lost, sensei," the blonde frowned.

"Mako."

"Hai, sensei?"

"On those occasions when you and Ami lost against Mina, what was the reason?"

"Attrition," the shark-skinned girl responded almost instantly. "With most of my jutsus being so chakra intensive, and Ami's reserves being what they are ..." she trailed off, looking at her teammate. The blue-haired kunoichi shrugged in response, as if to say 'don't worry about it' and continued in lieu of Mako.

"Also, Mina's weapons and technique are versatile enough to deal with, or at least let her avoid, some of our ninjutsu," Ami waited a moment, saw the blonde preen, and smiled sweetly. "And Mina-chan's skull is just too thick for most genjutsu to affect."

"Yeah, and my head's just ... Oi!" the blonde flushed with what was partially anger and partially embarassment. Unusually for a kunoichi, she had no talent for anything but the most basic genjutsu, and even those went poorly most of the time. The flipside was that she seemed to have some form of natural resistence to them as well. Still, it was a bit of a sore spot with her.

"Thank you, _Mizuno-kun_," Mina huffed, turning her head away in mock irritation. Then she sighed, dropping the act. "Ami's wins were usually through traps, and Mako's ..."

The last Hoshigaki looked down, aware that she was the one with the least so called 'wins' in her account, most of them because she'd simply overpowered her teammates with brute strength.

"Hoshigaki-san," the Jounin said, making her look up. He almost never used their family names. "You specialize in ninjutsu, so this was always harder on you than on your teammates. Despite that, you managed to steadily improve in both taijutsu, armed and not, and stealth. This is a fact."

"Mina," he turned to the blonde, dropping back to speaking casually again. "You went through most of your twenty minutes today undetected, against people who _know_ you and what you can do. Compared to nearly all the times prior, when you were forced to use hit and fade tactics to wear down your pursuers? Your taijutsu was already very well rounded and polished when you started on this team, but your stealth skills _have_ improved greatly."

"Ami," he said. Paused. Frowned. Fidgeted slightly. Shrugged. Grinned. "Good job." And that seemed to be enough.

"Now, there is another thing we need to talk about," he said, once again composed. The change in mood, while not unprecedented, got their attention. "In a few weeks, the Chuunin exam is going to be held in the Fire Country, the Hidden Leaf Village. The Mizukage and the Elders want our team to take part."

Suddenly, an oppressive silence loomed over them. Mizuno Ami broke it.

"You were going to sign us up for it anyway, weren't you?" she asked.

"You're certainly at a level where it would do you good to spread your wings a little," Katsu nodded. "If nothing else, I believe you have what it takes to not _die_ in it."

"Sempai, you said the 'kage and the Council want us to go," Mako stated. Flatly.

Katsu looked at her, then at Mina, and finally at Ami. Then he nodded. "They want us to fail."

"_WHAT_?"

"Mina!" the Jounin did not _quite_ shout.

"... eep ... um, what?" the blonde blushed. Beside her, Ami was paler than usual, and Mako's fingers were digging into the wood of the tree-trunk they were sitting on.

"A great many things that they would have rather seen dead and buried have been ... reminding them of their continued existence lately," Katsu started.

"Wave country," Mina said. There was no need to say anything more on that matter, since while it was far from official news, gossip traveled very fast. Gossip of things such as the reappearance of the Devil of the Hidden Mist was particularly quick to arrive at said village. Especially when said nukenin openly surrenders and cooperates with another Hidden Village.

"With me, it's that I'm a reminder of something they'd rather not have thrust in their face every time they see mine," Katsu's thumb ran across one of the white scar lines on his face. "Mako is in a similar situation, though perhaps less awkward since I managed to become Jounin."

The girl in question nodded.

"I'm clanless," Mina said bluntly.

"You're also a prodigy, the best at taijutsu in your year," Katsu, clanless himself, replied. Mina nodded at that. This, in conjunction with the fact that she had little tolerance for people who seemed to think they were entitled to superior treatment because of blood ... made things awkward. "And then there's Ami."

"Me?" the blue-haired kunoichi asked, blinking. "Well, mom's ... I mean, my father, he wasn't Mist, and abandoned my mother, but what else is there?"

"Ami," Katsu sighed. Deeply. "That isn't the sole reason for your mother being estranged from the rest of her family."

Mizuno Ami looked at him. Weighed her options. "Tell me."

"Before your mother decided to become a medic-nin, before your father was killed," a look of pure disbelief adorned Ami's face. "Your mother was being groomed to be the Mizuno clan's next Mistress of Assassins."

"... well," she started, in a strangled tone of voice, her mind already putting the pieces together. "Well. That ... certainly explains some things. Yes."

The clearing was quiet for the next half hour.

"So," Mina started.

"So?" Mako asked.

"So," Ami, still paler than usual, but with a determined look in her eyes. "Chuunin exam."

Katsu nodded.

"They want us to die," Mako stated.

Katsu nodded.

"Sensei?" Mina asked.

"What have I been training you for?" Katsu asked. "The first rule. Tell me."

Mina looked at Mako looked at Ami looked at Mina. Gazes met. They nodded.

"Survive to live. Live to survive."

"Good girls."

Hinata had been shocked by the nomination of her team for the Chuunin Exam, but after the mission they'd just finished she could understand how a high expectation might have formed. Kiba had been so excited, and even Shino had little signs that she'd begun to be able to see...

The shy girl hung her head, thinking, *Though Kurenai-sensei didn't say it, the exam requires teams of three to enter... If I don't go, Kiba-san and Shino-san will also be forced to hold back.* She shifted in the hard chair of the desk in her room, pressing her fingers nervously, then stilled herself, remembering the way such actions always brought the slowly fading scorn in Neji's eyes back full force. *I have become stronger... just a little bit. It's a worse failure if I hold my team back... I think now I can hold on, at least long enough for them to get through the gate.*

Resolved, she slid the entry form closer and reached for her pen, but was interrupted by a knock outside her door. "Eh-? Enter," she called, not quite a stutter and not quite a call for identification before allowing the intrusion.

The screen slid open to reveal one of her younger Branch Family cousins, a girl who always made her think blushingly of her secret ambition, having inherited the byakugan of her mother but the red hair and cheerful disposition of her outsider father. "Ne, Hinata-sama, Hiashi-sama wants to see you in the dojo," the smiling girl said brightly. "He was kind of a bigger sourpuss than usual so you should probably hurry, but since when is that new?"

Just like her most special someone, Nagisa could always lift Hinata's mood, and she found herself smiling just slightly back despite the somewhat ominous content of the message. "Thank you, Nagisa-chan," she replied, before enquiring, "Did you recieve p-permission to begin k-kendo training like you'd wanted?" The use of any weapon or style besides their trademark Gentle Fist was generally considered irrelevant and an admission of weakness within the clan, the more so if an outside tutor had to be found. Even if he now bore the Hyuuga name, the younger girl's father was still hardly counted among their number for such purposes, so special permission had to be obtained from the Elders.

The bright smile widened and and her cousin bounced slightly with excitement. "Yup! I have to keep up normal Jyuuken training first, but I get to learn dad's sword style as well! It'll be awesome!"

"I'm g-glad, Nagisa-chan," Hinata congratulated, before rising gracefully from her seat. "Ano, I s-should go see Father now... um, if... if that's all."

"Nope, that's everything," the redhead chirped, sliding the shoji shut again behind them and walking with her until their paths split at an intersecting hallway. "Don't worry Hinata-sama," she advised her quiet cousin. "Dad said you did one of the advanced techniques on your last mission, so Hiashi-sama's got to be proud of that, right? I'm sure he's just constipated or something and that caused the look on his face."

"Nagisa-chan!" the older girl gasped, scandalized. "You shouldn't say such things... if a Main House member heard you..."

A mischievous grin flashed as the other girl clapped her companionably on the shoulder. "Hinata-sama... YOU'RE a Main House member, the heir in fact. Are ya gonna use my seal on me?" Pale white eyes with just the faintest tinge of amber twinkled silent laughter that somehow wasn't mocking at all, while a thumb quirked at the angular, dark green marking carried openly on her forehead only partly obscured by short bangs. Then Nagisa hurried off with the usual spring in her step before Hinata could even begin to think of a reply, let alone stammer it out.

After a few seconds of stunned immobility the shy girl resumed her trek to the training hall that was maintained for the exclusive use of Main Family members to study the restricted techniques of advanced Jyuuken forms.

As expected, she found her father and younger sister Hanabi there, the seven year old's instruction in the family style having progressed much more satisfactorily than her own, at least until she'd begun training with Neji. She waited quietly to be acknowledged near the doors.

"Hinata," the man said evenly, when his youngest had finished her kata. "According to the report from your last mission, you exectuted one of the advanced techniques of the Gentle Fist. Why did you not inform me of this in person?"

Desperately clinging to the mental image of her patch, the older girl did her best not to fidget and stutter as she replied. "An-... I wanted to p-perfect the skill be... fore I told you... Neji-neesan's assistance has greatly helped, b-but I still cannot see tenketsu rel... reliably." The dream of becoming a reliable person was still something she could only dare to think in private.

"LIAR!" Hiashi accused, rounding on the girl with a furious expression. "The enemy's tenketsu were sealed, and his inner coils destroyed by high levels of chakra!" He slapped her, shouting, "Do you presume to try to hide your ability, to continue to allow the noble Hyuuga clan to look weak!"

Hinata stilled her hands, pressing them against her sides to avoid folding back the third and fourth fingers in the classic Jyuuken form, an act that would be taken as disrespect. It had become ingrained in her, training with her harsh cousin - get knocked down, stand back up and fight. Straightening her head from where the blow had turned it, she set her shoulders as well. The bold white wolf rose in her thoughts and took control of her mouth. "Because of the Hero Water, his tenketsu were unusually bright and easy to make out. Neji-neesan, Kiba-san, Shino-san, Kurenai-sensei, all of them I can only see the tenketsu occasionally. I have not intentionally hidden my ability, from you or from the clan, Otousama."

The burning anger faded from Hiashi's face, replaced by the calm and proper mask of a Hyuuga. He held her in a long, calculating look, then turned away again. "So instead of the appearance of weakness, the reality of weakness remains. You will demonstrate your improvement with Hanabi."

Momentary confidence wilting like a spring violet under a fire ninjutsu, Hinata shot a pitiful look at her younger sister, who remained unmoved and scornful. By habit and not wanting to chance the increasingly uncommon failure to work without it, she quickly formed the hand seal to activate her Byakugan. If only she could... but no. *Failure, again,* she thought despairingly.

"I cannot see Hanabi-neechan's tenketsu," she admitted, "or even yours, Father." Though she remained in a ready stance, Hinata's shoulders drooped and her head fell from the accepted position. The byakugan's nearly full-sphere vision made it all but irrelevant in practical terms, but the proper Jyuuken stance was also a psychological weapon to tell the enemy that they were already defeated, where hers gave more than a hint that Hanabi had already won.

She had to wait until late evening before her arms had recovered enough to have legible penmanship, so she could fill out the Chuunin Exam registration form. The wolf on the back of her jacket seemed to wink in the dancing shadows of her desk lamp as she did so.

If you get knocked down, then get back up and fight harder. After so much time watching Naruto, she'd finally really learned his secret for herself, and it just made her admire him even more.

(Would you like to know more? This chapter's omake is actually canonical, but didn't fit in.)

Naruto characters and setting created by Kishimoto Masahi, and the adapted Sailor Moon characters are Takeuchi Naoko's, while Katsu is Griever's property as cameo-insert. How that came about is a bit funny on its own - I was originally going to have had Zabuza succeed in his coup without his sister in the Mizukage's office to cause a critical second's hesitation, but then Griever suggested the whole "uncle Zabu" angle and it was too funny to pass up. Since he saved the Mizukage's life, I promoted him to Jounin of Hidden Mist on the spot, and Katsu was the character profile he came back with. Note that Katsu's backstory is not at all like this, though he'd probably be quite happy to thwart Zabuza in any way possible.

So there you have it, the least original chapter of Legend of Explosive Youth. Shibuki was too good a parallel to Hinata to pass up, but there was so little I could do to change the story besides changing how the final blows are landed. At least the speech about the Hero Water not giving real power fits believably in Shino's mouth, the original had Sasuke of all people giving it - such a thing was never in character for him to say at any point in canon, and still wouldn't be for mine yet... Hell, canon Sasuke would probably have tried to steal some Hero Water himself.

Takigakure - waterfall + hidden within

Yuuhi Kurenai - flying leap/a great accomplishment + deep red

Ninpo: Shikyaku no jutsu - Ninja magic: Four Legs skill

Tsuuga - piercing + fang

At the end of the scene with the first enemies at the waterfall in the anime there's a japanese pun I really wanted to include, but doing so would require in-line translation and broke things up too much. Naruto says, "Let's start the mission! The monkey usually cries and climbs up when he sees a tree, ne?" In romanji this is "Ki wo mita saru wo yoku nakiagaru," to which Sakura replies "Don't you mean 'Gi wo mite sezaru wa ya nakinaru?'" which means "To see what is right and not do it proves the lack of courage." As you can see by comparing the two sentences they have a very similar sound, and even what Naruto says could apply in a "Why climb the mountain?" "Because it's there." sort of way. Unfortunately I couldn't come up with an english spoonerism of anywhere near the same caliber for Kiba, and as I said including the japanese and translations in the main text is far too disruptive.

tori - a wooden entryway with two upper bars, the larger top one sometimes curved to be higher at the ends than the middle. Usually painted red. (more detail possible if I remember to look it up, may or may not share spelling with or have significant relation to the 'tori' that means 'bird')

suien - (1) mist over a body of water; spray; (2) four metal plates joined at right angles forming part of a pagoda finial

Takigakure Ryu: Mizuki no Yaiba - Hidden Waterfall Style: Sword of Water (not as literal as my usual provided translation, taken from the subtitles and my own ear for the japanese)

"Heh, you will always be like that ... Totally, you'll always be a weak coward." And here you have the canon line responsible for the Waterfall Country speech patterns. I had to do something to punch it up when most of the story was just regurgitating canon. Like totally, for sure.

Armor-grade kikai silk - essentially, the biologically produced equivalent of a kevlar/spectra weave, in the case of a patch like Hinata's created over a tight metal mesh to spread impacts and for extra resistance to stabbing and slashing weapons, so that by drawing the eye with an obvious target it can serve as a useful piece of armor despite the relatively small coverage. Because the pattern is created by the weaver-bugs themselves changing the color of their silk at their partner's direction designs can be created with details at the limit of naked-eye human observation, although the cost of such skilled creations rises sharply of course. Making such pieces is Shino's least insect-related hobby, in that bugs are only involved in the creation stage, while the final result and 'use' is aesthetic.

"And I would have got away with it, too..." - if you don't recognise this line, you are obviously horribly deprived and need to watch more classic cartoons. In this case, Scooby Doo, where nearly every episode ended with the villain saying that or a variation on it. Suien would have fit right in with them, at least in terms of (lack of) intelligence. Seriously, a ninja medicine that gives great power but will probably kill you, and not only is he willing to go to such lengths to get it, the first thing he does is drink some. If I was the leader of Takigakure, I'd make sure to have a small amount of the stuff around all the time, maybe with added powder of soldier pill for extra effect and a tasteless poison just for backups. If some fool comes looking for it, I'd give it to them immediately and let them kill themselves like the idiot they'd have to be.

Hyuuga Nagisa is lifted from the anime "Pretty Cure," an action-heavy magical girls show that's far more tolerable to the average teenage boy than Sailor Moon ever was. The only change I've made in her character design is adding the Hyuuga's characteristic chakra channeling membrane between the iris and lens of her eyes that gives them the all but blank white look... unless you count having confused the names of the main PuriKyua characters accidentally when I was originally writing the scene. The redhead is supposed to be named Misumi Nagisa, while Yukashiro Honoka has the name theme for the clan, Hyuuga standard long black hair and dark blue-purple eyes that would come out the usual pale violet through the byakugan membrane... oops.

Though I'm not sure of her age in the anime, Nagisa is ten in this story, two years behind Hinata and Naruto and two ahead of Konohamaru. There have to be some Branch members who aren't all doom and woe, ne? Of course the Main House Elders are constantly irritated by having a tiger lily in their garden of orchids, and she's frequently held as the example of why love matches are a foolish indulgence compared to arrangements made by properly thinking senior family members, but what else can you expect from the lower house? Not that poor Nagisa has to worry about it, the only love letters she gets are from the other girls, admiring her confidence and athleticism.

I reccomend at least checking out the show, the opening theme is the fun kind of J-pop (as opposed to the sickeningly saccharine kind) and the few first episodes alone are a hoot, what with Nagisa's side comments and the David-Bowie-as-the-Goblin-King style dark general. Pretty Cure Max Heart is a continuation of the first season with a more rocking version of the OP, but it used up all the awesome-sauce and left Splash Star as a reboot with 1000% formulaic little-girly fluff, only to be attempted if you -really- like the earlier seasons and don't mind such things. Frex, if by some chance you're an actual girl, which rumor holds can be found on the internet from time to time. Unfortunately since I can't read Japanese the only part of the titles I can make out is "ABC" and "ADK," one or the other of which may be a company that owns the series in Japan. In any case, it's not me, and without regular internet access it's not something I can look up easily.

Poor Hinata - it's always one step forward, two steps back with her family, it seems. The dojo scene actually ended up harsher than I intended it, but it still fits with what we've seen of the Hyuuga at this stage in continuity.

Griever's notes on 'his' girls: I'm imagining Mina in a black/rust colored bodystocking, long sleeved, but only down to just above the knees. Kneepads (armored). Low heeled ankle boots. Loose waistcoat/short kimono w/wide sleeves with twin chain launchers/winches - something like what I remember those two Mist nin at the beginning of the Wave country arc having - with a variety of attachments (a weight at the end, a sickle/kama, a short double edged blade, etc.). For thrown weapons, she uses kunai and manriki. The waistcoat/kimono thingy is tiger-striped orange. The 'lots-and-lots-of-weapons' thing I have her pulling can be attributed to a Blade of the Immortal OD on my part.

Mako - go with the bodysuit/wetsuit, then, and a variety of garments to wear over that. Shades of green. For some reason, I see her with a collapsible Yari. (spear)

Ami - actually, I was thinking more along the lines of an outfit resembling Katsu's plain functionality-over-looks fatigues, only trimmed with shades of blue and (less so) green over the plain grey. Maybe with either shorts or a short sleeved vest. (She has a small backpack for medicines and tools instead of the standard little butt pouch)

Omake: A special hell for delinquent and abusive fathers...

"Konoha's Handsome Green Beast! Maito Gai!"

"The Proud Green Beast! Rock Lee!"

"The Blazing Orange Wildfire! Uzumaki Naruto!"

"The Bold White Wolf! Hyuuga Hinata!"

"TEAM EXPLOSIVE YOUTH! HASSHIN!"

Jerking upright with a strangled gasp, Hiashi wiped at the sweat beading his face. "No more takodango when I get the midnight munchies," he ordered himself firmly. Lying back, he used a certain mental technique to quickly return to sleep.

"You could call it, an absolute defense... Kaiten! EEEK!" (thud)

Enough was enough, the Hyuuga Clan Head decided, after starting awake again at the image of his eldest accidentally blasting all her clothes off with the pressure of her chakra and fainting from embarrassment in the middle of a public tournement. He obviously wasn't going to get any rest tonight... rolling smoothly upright he slipped on a robe, before lighting the candles on his wife's shrine to pray for guidance and forgiveness with the matter of their first daughter, whose very face was a stab in his heart every time he saw her.

END OF LINE


	15. A History Lesson Before the Exams

**Alas, this is the last of the existing parts, and cobbled together from a shortie and the intro to the next real chapter at that. I hope to get back to this story someday, but it requires an upbeat frame of mind that has been scarce the past couple of years, very much so since a house fire that lost nearly everything I owned except my dog and what was in my car (laundry and a few RPG books)**

txy08x9_findAnail_plus

2009-04-20 - hammered this one out after a couple days of not getting more than a few sentences on something else.  
>2011-10-17 - added a few scenes from the beginning of Part 9, up to where I skip over the First Exam proper, to fill this out into a worthwhile FFn chapter<p>

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><p>Little things can have seemingly unreasonably huge effects. It's been said before, but it's worth repeating... Sometime ages ago, one mercant makes a better deal than another, so one family becomes a major trading house instead of another, so the favored route to their home city is by a different road, so a horse loses a nail from its shoe in a different place. It gets stuck in the soft sole of a panicked man's house-slipper, so he's slower and less able to travel...<p>

The question, of course, is whether things turn out the better or worse from that normally minor injury. Let's find out, shall we?

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><p>Legend of Explosive Youth!<p>

Chapter 8x: Finding a Nail in your Shoe

* * *

><p>Konoha Year 58<p>

Just outside Konohagakure

A gasping civilian man struggled as he carried his wife through the dark forest, staggering with every step. The lower part of her yukata as well as his arms were dark with liquid, and he stumbled and almost fell as she paused in her labored breathing to clutch at her stomach and scream. The large dog running after them whined worriedly.

A few more panting breaths, and she gasped out, "Put, put me down, Anata... It's too late..."

"No! I..." Another step on his injured foot made him wince and grimace. "I have to get you to the medic-nin, Hitomi! I can't call myself a man if I fail!"

"There's no question of that, you pigheaded ass, this is AAAGH! FUCK! ... all your fault in the first place! There's no goddamn time, find a clear spot and put me DOOOOOOOW! Shit, you've delivered enough puppies, you know how these fucking things work!"

Legs frozen by shock, he goggled for a moment at his usually sweet, traditional, deferential wife before stammering, "But... Already?... I mean... they said..." He stopped babbling and clenched his own teeth as as the woman's face twisted up in pain and her hand tightened punishingly on his bicep. "All right, all right!"

As gently as he could, he lowered his love on the grass in a moonlit clearing, then quickly unfastened his own yukata top and spread it on the ground before moving her onto it. The woman panted for a few more seconds before cutting loose with another scream, her fingernails leaving gouges in his now unprotected arm as she grabbed it again.

Wincing but not really even noticing the damage, he fumbled with the obi that had been tied hurriedly before leaving their outlying homestead, then drew his belt knife and reached to cut it away.

Before he could, he found himself unable to move, one small hand on that wrist and another on the opposite shoulder. Both held him in a grip as immutable as stone as the dog belatedly began barking and growling. From just behind him, a young girl's voice demanded calmly but firmly, "What's the situation here?"

Yelping, he jerked in surprise and would have fallen if not for the unbending support of the unseen person still restraining him. "Ah! Oh, shinobi-sama, it's my wife! The baby is coming, but I stepped on something sharp and I couldn't carry her fast enough..."

Understanding, the dark-haired young kunoichi eased him back into a balanced position, then let go before firmly nudging him to the side. "In that case, it seems your luck isn't so bad after all. I'm an apprentice medic-nin, and Tsunade-sama is right nearby..." suddenly remembering her teacher's unfortunate phobia and how bloody childbirths were, she hastened to add, "but we won't even need to bother her with something as normal as this, I'm a great student!" She gave her best reassuring smile before using a quick chakra exercise to make the knotted belt untie itself, then helped Hitomi shrug the yukata off and tapped a pair of nerve clusters on her back to deaden the pain.

Sighing in relief the woman lay back afterward, arm stabbing out like a striking snake to grab her man again as he tried to step back and let the women deal with the terrifying process since someone else had taken charge. "No you don't, husband," she ordered. "Make yourself useful and put my head in your lap, if shinobi-sama doesn't need you for anything."

"Er, yes dear." Almost hopefully he asked, "Is there anything you need of me, shinobi-sama?"

Stifling a most unprofessional urge to giggle, the teenager shook her head and replied, "You can just call me Shizune, and helping make your wife comfortable is the best thing for you do do. Us girls'll handle the rest. Though you should probably keep a hand on your dog's collar as well, he could get anxious with a stranger around when one of his people is hurting."

She whipped out a short sequence of hand seals and produced a gentle stream of warm water to fill a large bowl pulled from her pack, then used it to wash away the sticky amniotic fluid still clinging from when Hitomi's water broke. She spoke reassuringly as a quick medical jutsu confirmed the baby's condition - stressed of course, but no more than normally under the circumstances. More detailed readings would have to wait until afterward, when he could be cleaned up and Tsunade could check on him. "Just keep it up, ma'am, you're doing fine, and your baby is too. It looks like this is your first time, ne?" Seeing the young husband's hurried nods even as another contraction rippled across his wife's abdomen, she continued, "Normally a first delivery takes a long time because things have to stretch enough for the baby to come out, but there's techniques to help with that, and to make recovering afterwards faster and easier. We should be done here in just a couple of hours," she said brightly.

"HOURS!" Hitomi shouted, all but crushing her husband's hand. After the next contraction passed, her next few comments were quite unprintable.

Shizune hid a snicker by turning to rummage in her pack. She'd actually assisted with a birth a part of her first C-rank mission, before even ever seeing a medic jutsu used, but first time parents all acted the same whether they were wealthy nobles or hard-scrabble peasants.

In the end it was a bare hour and a half, the sturdy baby boy's first cries ear splitting against the quiet night background until he was washed, wrapped in Shizune's blanket, and gathered to his mother's breast. Not even she could do anything about the blood soaked and caul stained yukata that had been used as a ground sheet, however, so she apologized softly as she wrapped the mess up in it and used a training Earth-type jutsu to bury it deep enough to at least keep civilians from noticing the lingering scent, and deter wild animals from digging it up. "Come on, you can stay at our camp tonight and go into Konoha to visit the hospital in the morning," she instructed.

Having dealt with the small puncture in his foot while waiting for the baby to arrive, Shizune helped the young father to get on his feet and pick up his newly enlarged family, their vigilant dog staying close on his heels. Suddenly he charged ahead, barking and growling, and Shizune dashed after him when she heard a terrified squeal.

She returned a moment later cuddling a small, terrified piglet, the dog following again with his ears laid back and growling every few seconds. "It's just my piggy Ton-ton," she reassured the nervous parents, before saying quietly, "Tsunade-sama is feeling a little off right now, she lost someone very close to her recently. It's a wound that can't be healed by jutsu... Please let me do most of the talking with her, alright?" She felt a fresh stab in her own heart at the thought of her uncle, but kept her professional mien in place.

"Of course, Shizune-sama," the young man replied quietly. "I can just go on to Konoha now that you fixed my foot, there's no need for us to intrude."

"The gates are closed by now anyway," a new voice cut in from overhead. "And I don't need coddling, Shizune. You can turn around and go back yourself if you're going to try to treat me with kid gloves."

"Of course not, Tsunade-sama!" the younger kunoichi acknowledged. Hoping to distract her teacher, she suggested, "Would you like to examine the baby, shishou? He seems to be fine, but I am only your apprentice."

Stomach quivering slightly at the lingering smell of blood despite the light buzz and deadened senses from the sake she'd been drinking since making camp, the legendary medic hesitated a moment before hopping down from her tree and passing a green-lit hand over the infant where he lay snoozing with his mother, in his father's sturdy arms. She frowned, made a few handseals, then applied both palms to the tiny body, and the new parent caught his breath in sudden fear.

"What is it, Tsunade-sama?" he gulped.

"Nothing to worry about. Just... This kid, don't let him try to be a ninja when he grows up."

Shizune was also confused, but let the father speak since she'd already been reprimanded. "Not a ninja? ... I don't understand, is there something wrong?"

Rather than answer directly, Tsunade turned and started walking slowly away. "Being a ninja is a shit job," she said, spitting the words out like bitter fruit. "The only worse job is to be a leader of ninja. Anyone who wants a happy life, should stay as far away from ninja as possible... Come on Shizune, we're going."

Startled, the girl protested, "Going? But, our camp things, and we can't just leave these three alone can we?"

Waving such concerns away, Tsunade replied, "They can have the camp stuff, I'll just buy us some more at the next town. The patrols will keep an eye on them overnight so there's nothing to worry about." She pulled a fresh bottle of sake out of a pocket and kept walking away.

Hurriedly, Shizune bowed and made her apologies for the abrupt departure. "It looks like we'll be leaving you after all, but the camp is just past those trees. Please excuse Tsunade-sama, it's a trying time, um ... actually, I don't think I ever got your names..."

"Cliff, I'm Rock Cliff, and this is my wife Hitomi and little Lee. We'll never forget your help, Shizune-sama, and thank Tsunade-sama for us as well. Buddha bless you both, and bring your hearts healing and good fortune in your travels."

Knowing her teacher, the girl had little doubt that they'd need all the blessings they could get as far as good fortune was concerned. As for healing hearts... Oh yeah, every blessing they could get.

* * *

><p>The present, Konoha Year 71<p>

It wasn't home, but it felt oddly familiar. True, the trees were more gnarled, the leaves more vibrantly green, and there was actually some underbrush rather than the pathetic bits of shrubbery that made up the forest floor in and around the Hidden Mist.

The sunlight filtering through said leaves and tree branches was definitely more intense, and Katsu didn't really know whether to like it or not.

"I still can't see why we can't wear something stylish," he heard for the umpteenth time during this trip. "This is all so drab and impersonal! Not fashionable at all. Senseiiiiiiii!"

He silently thanked the Gods and whatever other forces were listening -getting a quiet chuckle from a deeply buried corner of his soul in return, which he replied to with a mental growl- that even with his team being an all kunoichi one, only one of those kunoichi was typically going on about that sort of stuff.

Still ...

Whatever possessed him to plead, intimidate, bribe and annoy the right people to get put up as their Jounin sensei two years ago, he didn't quite know.

He gave a quiet sigh.

Alright, so maybe he did know. And he was also pretty sure that there were people besides the voice in his head - and how weird was it to actually not feel all, well, _weird_ about _that_ bit? - who also knew.

One of whom, he was certain, had taken great pains to coach Mina in the art of seeming unthreatening despite everything else ... and while Katsu was grateful, for that and for a few other things Michiru-kun had done ever since that day in the Stone Country when they were both still genin and running for their lives, he was pretty sure the Kaiou heir was laughing her ass off at his expense.

Oh well, wouldn't be the first time. Or the last time.

He alighted atop the thick branch of a tree sitting right on the crest of the hill, the three genin kunoichi picking their own perches for what looked to be a momentary pause in their travel.

"Sugoiii," Mina was the first to break the silence. A few miles ahead, down the slight slope and through a thicket of woods that were far more cluttered than the giant forest back 'home', sat the merging of urbania and rusticims that was Konohagakure. "That's one _big_ wall."

Katsu had to agree. The Hidden Mist had no such barrier between them and the 'outside' world, and while this was in part due to the fact that most of that Hidden Village hung in the air, suspended between giant trees or carved into them, there was also the fact that most of Kirigakure's protections were split. The oldest and most established Clans and Houses maintained their own barriers and guards, and there was no real unified force that would defend the Village as a whole. The Mist Jounin blamed it on the place's backstabbing politics.

For a moment, though, there was no real consideration of things other than the now, and in that *now* the image of Konohagakure bathed in the pinkish light of a dawning sun ...

"Wow," Mako breathed from where she stood.

"Impressive," Ami concurred, her voice quietly intense.

"Just don't let the pretty picture overshadow the underneath," he told them after five or so minutes.

"If it's so important for a shinobi to do that, sensei," Mina groused ... somehow, she managed to pull off doing it cutely, which had Katsu's eyebrow twitch. "Why do we even need to bother with these?"

'These' were the plain grey travelling cloak and wide brimmed straw hat that he'd added to their gear and told them to wear as part of their travel kit before they'd left the Mist.

"Because some people won't bother with second glances," Katsu shrugged. He gave Mina a level look. "Also, I'm a 'mean and vindicative ogre who doles out cruel and unusual punishment to the unsuspecting and undeserving'. And on that note, you weren't exactly quiet with your grumbling last night."

Mina had the grace to look embarassed and weakly laugh.

"But some people do bother to look," Mako interrupted. Her look was perhaps the most changed, owing the fact to the bandages that she'd wrapped around her limbs and head, even beneath the usual bodyglove. "And they will find out, sooner or later." The Hoshigaki girl looked faintly uncomfortable with that.

"Take whatever advantage you can," Ami and Katsu said, the kunoichi in perfect synch with her teacher. He gave her a look.

"What? You end up telling us that so often it's hardly a surprise," the blue-haired genin and medic-nin in training noted.

Katsu shook his head in faint bemusement, then shrugged.

"Well, that's enough wool-gathering," he spoke a moment later. "Ready to see where this takes us?"

"Hai, sensei!"

The four were off, grey shadows flitting between the trees in the light of morning, on a road towards the unexpected.

Legend of Explosive Youth Part Nine

A New Challenge for Everyone! Enter the Chuunin Exams!

With numerous segments and even more plot suggestions by Valles, Greiver, and Drakensis, tied together with Classicdrogn's usual stuff. This chapter even more than the rest is definately a team effort deserving of full co-author credit.

Gai had told his team to approach the Chuunin Exam as if it was a B-ranked mission, since there would obviously be ninja opposition in it, so the youthful trio had forgone the usual morning spar in favor of extra stretches and checking over their equipment.

"Drat, I'd forgotten about this one," Rikou sighed, running a fingertip across the deeply scored kunai she'd used to shove her uncle's zanbato away from Tazuna's neck. She'd already set three others aside as having questionable amounts of nicks from the unavoidable rough use those most basic of tools were subject to, and combined with this one's obvious unfitness for further service that meant she'd have to make a detour to a weapon shop before the test began... and there wasn't much time left before they were supposed to arrive. Worse, the shopping district was on the other side of Konoha from their training ground, and on top of that with everyone else preparing for the exams as well it was quite possible they'd have been sold out for the moment. She humphed in irritation and frowned heavily.

Looking up from where he was packing his own equipment away, Lee quicky discerned the reason for her dissatisfaction. Extending a hand he requested, "Rikou-san, may I examine it?"

"Eh? Sure, Lee, but it's really no good any more. I was just wondering whether I should keep it as a souvenir or trade it in for the scrap rebate on replacements," the girl replied. She nimbly flipped it so she could pass the handle to her team mate.

He gently repeated the gesture of feeling the gouge left in its side by the much larger weapon, almost as if calming some small animal rather than checking the flaw in a piece of equipment. He looked up and gave a brilliant smile, asserting, "I think this little guy still has some youth left, he just needs a bit of assistance!"

Rikou blinked, and Naruto scratched the back of his head bemusedly. Sometimes their team mate seemed a little odd, even to them. "Lee," she said patiently, "it's just a kunai, it can't heal. If I try to use it like that, it could break and put me in a bad situation."

Still smiling, Lee shook his head and closed both hands over the small knife. "Gai-sensei taught us all 'Neko no Kankoashi,' but he didn't mention quite how useful it was," he explained. "It reinforces the ground to avoid causing difficulty with our training weights, but I experimented with it some more. It seems that the same techinique can be used to..." Here the bowl-cut boy paused and closed his eyes, concentrating for a moment. "Reinforce!" A faint sound of chakra being molded emanated form his hands, less a squeal than a soft hiss. "...other things, as well!"

He opened his hands and passed the kunai back, gleaming and perfect, and as the girl discovered on checking the blade against a thumb, wickedly sharp. She sucked on the tiny cut and stared at Lee with amazed eyes, while Naruto jumped to his feet in excitement.

"Hey, hey! What a kick-ass jutsu, Lee!" the blond shouted. "I never even thought of trying something like that. The power of your youth even overcame not being able to do ninja techniques, that's awesome, dattebayo!"

Lee, though, hung his head in shame as if he'd confessed to some horrible crime. "My dream is to become a great ninja using only taijutsu, but when I finally found a ninjutsu I could do, I couldn't help but search for the limits," he admitted. "Because it gives such a good idea of the structure of what it's used on, I thought about how the kunai could attain its strongest form, and then changed it to become my image."

Undeterred, the energetic fox boy punched his friend's shoulder to get him to look back up. "That's not a problem, Lee," he asserted. "Even a super-awesome ninja still needs secret techniques to use in a pinch, different from what's expected. Like your Lotus, or that 'Murasu' Rikou and I made!"

"Yeah," Rikou agreed hastily, seeing Lee look at her uncertainly. "Thanks for saving me from having to rush over to the weapon shop," she told him. "There's not a lot of time left before we need to turn in our application forms, you know." Quickly, she gathered up the other damaged kunai and held them out entreatingly. "Could you fix these for me, too?" She chuckled at the way her almost-brother's face lit up with their acceptance and assured him, "Don't worry, we won't tell anyone about your new secret technique, so you won't be buried in random people coming to you to fix their equipment instead of buying new things!"

Ino had spotted Team Seven's entrance and started rushing over to Sasuke, only to draw up short as a certain detail caught her attention. Curious and a bit wary, she approached her rival instead and commented, "I see you found a new style, Sakura. Decided to cover up that huge forehead at last?"

The youngest Haruno seemed about to explode into another of her rants for a moment, then deflated. She puffed a tiny sigh and confided, "Ino... I'll tell you a secret I discovered. It seems the thing Sasuke-kun likes isn't an expensive scent or long, shining hair... It's being a serious ninja." She tugged unhappily at the braid she'd settled for tying her pink locks back with, before smiling tentatively and asking, "Ne, Ino-chan... If it's not too late... do you think I could borrow that ribbon again? It always looked better there than a forehead protector anyway..."

The blonde kunoichi gave her former best friend a searching stare before breaking into a massive smile that lit up the room. She grabbed the other girl in a tight hug for a few seconds before letting go to wipe at something in her eye. "Of course!" she chirped. "But... After the exams, okay?"

The pinkette's own grin widened and she nodded happily. "Until then, let's give it all we've got... you'd better not lose to anyone but me, understand?" she challenged.

"I understand perfectly... Same to you!" Ino's voice softened again for a moment, saying, "I missed you, Sakura-chan," before giving one last flash of teeth and turning to the other business at hand. "SASUKE-KUN!" she squealed excitedly, glomping on with unusual ease since the boy had thought their attentions safely diverted for once. He snorted in annoyance, while off to one side Tenten covered her mouth with one hand, trying to hide her amusement.

Of course, less than a minute later she was doing the happy-squeal-and-glomp routine herself, as she spotted her white-eyed knight Hyuuga Neji further into the room, his irked team mates glaring fire and brimstone for her presumption.

Oddly enough, the glance he shot at the Uchiha expecting bishounen solidarity in the face of annoying fangirls was met by equal (if well hidden from anyone else) heat. Neji's scowl deepened and he silently cursed the cruel hand of fate once more.

"There you guys are!" The moment was broken by Kiba's enthusiastic greeting, as the Inuzuka boy led his team mates over to stand near their fellow rookies.

Shikamaru didn't bother with the effort to wave, but aknowleged their arrival with a drawled, "Che... You're doing this troublesome thing too?"

"Looks like we're all here," Kiba cut in with a smirk. "Heh... It'll be interesting, to see how far we'll get."

"If you're smart, dude, you'll like, quit before there's any fighting." The new voice was unfamiliar, though when the Inuzuka boy noticed the speaker's Hidden Waterfall hitae-ite on his generic grey outfit, the distinctive goatee let him recognize the older teen as one of the Takigakure natives who'd shouted support for Shibuki when rogue ninja had them tied up as hostages. "You and your dog, and your team mates that don't know enough to stay out of other people's private affairs... You're our first targets!"

"Yeah right," Kiba blew him off, with a confident bark from Akamaru as well. "Like we've got anything to worry about from the likes of you, who couldn't even beat that idiot's weak-ass minions."

Seeing his team mate about to blow his top, the other male member of the squad, dressed similarly unremarkably but in darker grey, laid a calming hand on his shoulder and tried to defuse the situation. "Ah, take it easy, Namimaru, at least until we have more information on the upcoming tests." Nodding greetings to the members of Team 8, his eyes showed only polite recognition from within the deep blue tattooed bands leading back toward his ears.

Their kunoichi third member had hung back a step, hurriedly fussing with her dark hair, patting down her orange halter top and blue shorts, adjusting the scarf with her hitae-ate at her neck and the pouch at her waist. Finishing the brush-up she stepped around them and put on an equally brilliant smile, stepping close enough to run a hand down Shino's jacket-covered bicep as she purred, "Don't worry Namimaru, Mizonabe, I'm sure there'll be a chance to ... come to grips against ... the outsiders our village hails as heroes and test our best." Batting her eyelashes at the stoic Aburame heir, she introduced herself, "Hi, I'm Ume, Hidden Waterfall's Dragonfly Princess. Is it true your whole clan uses insect styles?"

A small drop of sweat snuck out from behind the arm of Shino's sunglasses before trailing down and vanishing behind his collar as he tried to come up with a response suitable for both her words and less verbal messages.

Shaking off the restraining hand, Namimaru sneered and curtly ordered, "Cut that out, Ume, you look like a disgrace! Acting like these outsiders are some kind of celebrities. Come on!" Grabbing the back of her belt he hauled her away from the confounded Aburame and led his team away, Misunabe giving a quick nod-bow politely and with a slight air of apology. One of the Leaf candidates their age made his way over to talk to the kids as the Taki-nin left, but they paid him no mind - or at least, no more than anyone else in a room full of highly stressed potential enemies with varying degrees of paranoia and bloodlust. "I can't believe you," he snarled, scowling at Ume. "Like, fawning all over that leaf kid... This is way serious, you know? No matter what, we gotta shoot this gnarly curl and get stronger... That heinous Suien could never have got close to succeeding if Waterfall had more strong ninja to guard the village instead of having to send everyone but a few genin to fill missions for Daimyo-sama. No throwing in the towel, no mellowing out, and no hanging with the competition, dig?"

The kunoichi's face fell and she nodded contritely before perking up to say, "Well, there's always after the exam! Shino-kun and me could like, celebrate our promotions together..." She trailed off and a light blush formed on her cheeks, imagination running away with her and the tall, dark, strong, quiet, cool and handsome Leaf-nin who'd stood up for her and her friends.

Namimaru just grumbled and glared at the floor as her eyes glazed after a few seconds, and she giggled softly while rubbing an itchy nose. At least the proctors arrived before too long, and finally got the stupid test underway.

* * *

><p>That's all there is to know? Say it ain't so, Joe! Say it ain't so!<p>

* * *

><p>Just a pair of short scenes that popped into my head one evening, explaining why my Lee is capable of even a tiny bit of chakra use when canon Lee is completely unable to. Of course, even Tsunade can't do much drunk and only willing to spend a few minutes on it - it's hardly life threatening after all, and she makes her position on the ninja life abundantly clear, so his not being brought up to full potential is not a big issue to her... At least, not at that time.<p>

The title, of course, is the reversed form of the "for want of a nail" solliloquy.

As to timelines:

Distant past:

The Haruno clan head decides to push their bloodline abilities and find new techniques for a combat oriented age like their couterparts the Yamanaka, rather than hold to the traditional espionage and infiltration role.

Aburame silk traders expand to general carriers in place of Haruno civilian branch.

Konoha Year 1: The Uchiha and Senju clans come together to found the first ninja villiage, Madara driven out when he refuses to accept a Senju as Hokage.

(stuff happens)

KY 53 - 5 yr old Baksuta Neshan found in the wreckage of a merchant caravan wiped out by bandits

KY 56 - Momochi Keiunko meets Maito Gai on a mission to Konoha, end of Third Shinobi War, Mitarashi Minato appointed 4th Hokage over Danzo and Orochimaru

KY 57 - Momochi Keiunko resigns from service in Hidden Mist, Gai and Keiunko marry

KY 58 - death of Nawaki, Tsunade leaves Konoha, Rock Lee born, Maito Rikou born

KY 59 - Kyuubi attacks, Naruto born, 3rd Hokage reinstated over Danzo and Orochimaru

KY 60 - Orochimaru gets angry and careless after being passed over AGAIN, his experiments on Leaf citizens are discovered so he collects Anko under false pretences and flees

(spoilery stuff happens)

KY 70 - Naruto, Lee, and Rikou graduate, Tenten informally becomes Neshan's student after graduating but not having a team available.

KY 71 - SPRING: Sasuke, Sakura, et al graduate, Tenten assigned to Team 7, Chuunin Exams held in Iwagakure & Kabuto quits for the 6th time.

KY 71 - FALL: the present, Chuunin Exams held in Konoha, Cockaroachimaru arranges a party

SO LET'S GET A PARTY GOIN', LET'S GET A PARTY GOIN', NOW IT'S TIME TO PARTY AND WE'LL PARTY HARD!


End file.
